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LONDON OF THE FUTURE 




THE HEART OF THE EMPIRE. 



LONDON OF 
THE FUTURE 

By THE LONDON SOCIETY 

UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF 

SIR ASTON WEBB, K.C.V.O., C.B., P.R.A. 



E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 
68 1 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



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(All rights reserved) 

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 



By Exob»ne° 
Amerioav- UuWewlW 



SEP 6 



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FOREWORD 

In accepting the invitation to write a few introductory words to the 
interesting volume which has been compiled by those who have 
the welfare of The London Society so greatly at heart, I should like, 
as President of the Society, to bear testimony to the thoroughness 
of the work which has been done since the spring of 1912, when 
the first meeting took place. Month by month since its inauguration 
the Society has gone steadily ahead. Even during those anxious 
times when our thoughts were always directed to the other side 
of the Channel and to lands far more distant, the work was carried 
on steadily by those who were unable to take an active part in the 
great events which were happening. Now that Peace is once more 
with us, even although there are many troubles and anxieties to 
be overcome, the Society is able greatly to extend its usefulness, 
and there are many subjects of great public interest which are under 
consideration by the Council. 

This volume, the production of which has been a labour of 
love to the eminent men who have contributed the articles on such 
a variety of subjects, is now laid before the public with an earnest 
hope that it may be well received and that it may be the means 
of some of the suggestions contained in the book being carried out 
to the great advantage of London. 



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£^*^y-V»^«, tft*«»**\* 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

FOREWORD 5 

The Earl op Plymouth, G.B.E., P.C., C.B., D.L., President of 
The London Society 

CHAPTER 

I. INTRODUCTION, WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LONDON 

SOCIETY 15 

Sir Aston Webb, K.C.V.O., C.B., P.R.A., Chairman of Council 
of The London Society 

II. THE OPPORTUNITIES OF LONDON . . . .37 

T. Raffles Davison, Esq., Hon. A.R.I.B.A. 

III. ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC OF LONDON . . .49 

Colonel R. C. Hellard, C.B., formerly Superintendent of 
the London Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade 

IV. LONDON RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION . . . .69 

H. J. Leaning, Esq., F.S.I. 

V. COMMERCIAL AVIATION AND LONDON . . . .93 

The Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, C.S.I. 

VI. THE BRIDGES OF LONDON— 1815-1920 . . . .101 

Sir Reginald Blomfield, R.A., Litt.D. 

i 

VII. LONDON AND THE CHANNEL TUNNEL . . . .117 

Sir Arthur Fell, M.P., Chairman of the House of Commons 
Channel Tunnel Committee 

VIII. THE SURREY SIDE 127 

Paul Waterhouse, Esq., F.S.A., P.R.I.B.A. 
7 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

CHAPTEK p AQE 

IX. CENTRAL LONDON 141 

Professor Adshead, F.R.I.B.A., Professor of Town Planning 
at London University 

X. THE PORT OF LONDON . . . . . .155 

The Viscount Devonport, P.C., Chairman of the Port of 
London Authority 

XL THE EAST END 163 

The Rt. Rev. H. L. Paget (as Bishop of Stepney), Bishop 
of Chester 

XII. SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF LONDON . 177 
Raymond Unwin, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Chief Town Planning 
Inspector, Ministry of Health 

XIII. THE HOUSING OF LONDON 195 

W. R. Davidge, Esq., F.S.I., formerly Housing Commissioner 
for the London Area 

XIV. THE GOVERNMENT OF LONDON 213 

W. E. Riley, Esq., formerly Architect to the London County 
Council 

XV. THE PARKS AND OPEN SPACES OF LONDON . . 235 

David Barclay Niven, Esq., F.R.I.B.A. 

XVI. LONDON AS THE HEART OF THE EMPIRE . . .251 

The Earl of Meath, P.C., K.P., Chairman of the Metropolitan 
Public Gardens Association, and Founder of the Empire 
Movement 

XVII. THE SMOKE PLAGUE OF LONDON . . . .261 

The late Sir William Richmond, K.C.B., R.A., Founder of 
the Coal Smofye Abatement Society 

XVIII. THE SPIRIT OF LONDON 273 

The Marquess of Crewe, K.G., P.O., F.S.A. 

INDEX 283 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Heart op the Empire ..... Frontispiece 

(From a photograph by William J. S. Lockyer. Lent by Sir Aston Webb, P.R.A.) 

TO PACE PAGE 

The Problem of Central London Viewed from the Air . . 24 

(Photograph by the Aircraft Manufacturing Company, Ltd.) 

The Smoke Problem . . . . . . . .24 

(Photograph lent by the Garden Cities Association) 

Watermeads, Mitcham . . . . . . . .32 

(Photographs by the West Surrey Photographic Society. Lent by the Commons and 
Footpatlis Preservation Society) 

A Great Opportunity : Charing Cross Bridge . . . .38 

(Photograph lent by Mr. T. Raffles Davison) 

A Lost Opportunity : London Bridge Approach . . . .44 

(Photograph lent by Mr. T. Raffles Davison) 

London's Traffic Troubles : Two Views in Brentford High Street 56 

(Photograph by Wakefields Ltd.) 

In Chiswick ......... 64 

(Photograph by Francis R. Taylor) 

The Hall, Staple Inn . . . . . . . .64 

(Photograph by Francis R. Taylor) 

Dredging a Waterway for a New Dock ..... 156 

(Photograph by the Port of London Authority) 

A Cunard Liner in the Docks ...... 156 

(Plwtograph by the Port of London Autliority) 

A New Dock nearing Completion ...... 158 

(Photograph by tlte Port of London Authority) 

A Busy Scene in the Docks ....... 158 

(Photograph by the Port of London Authority) 

9 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

TO FACE PAGE 

Two Views in the Hampstead Garden Suburb .... 180 

(Photographs by Arthur Tedman. Lent by Mr. Raymond Unwin) 

Two Views in the Hampstead Garden Suburb .... 184 

(Photographs lent by Mr. Raymond Umoin) 

Duke's Meadows, Chiswick . . . . . . .188 

(Photograph lent by tlie Chiswick Residents' Committee, 1919) 

Strand-on-Green, Chiswick : One op London's Quiet Corners . . 188 

(Photograph by Wakefields Ltd.) 

House-tops at Shadwell ....... 202 

(Photograph lent by the Garden Cities Association) 

A Street still Existing not far from Golder's Green . . 202 

(Photograph lent by the Garden Cities Association) 

Ducane Road, Old Oak Estate ...... 216 

(Pliotograph by the London County Council) 

West End of Tower Garden, White Hart Lane Estate . . 216 

(Photograph by the London County Council) 

The Millbank Estate ........ 218 

(Pliotograph by the London County Council) 

The Bourne Estate ........ 218 

(Photograph by tlie London County Council) 

The Bathing Lake, Tooting ....... 222 

(Photograph by the London County Council 

The Lake, Tooting Common ....... 222 

(Photograph by tlie London County Council) 

The Lake, Kenwood ........ 236 

(Photograph lent by the Commons and Footpaths Preservation Society) 

Hampstead Heath from the Air ...... 236 

(Photograph by the Aircraft Manufacturing Company, Ltd.) 

De Beauvoir Square, Kingsland Road, Hackney .... 238 

(Photograph lent by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association) 

St. Matthew's Churchyard, Bethnal Green .... 238 

> (Pliotograph lent by tlie Metropolitan Public Gardens Association) 

Two Views of the Roof Garden above Mr. Selfridge's Building . 242 

(Photographs by Alexander Corbett. Lent by Mr. H. Gordon Selfridge) 

10 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

TO PACE PAGE 

Watermeads, Mitcham ........ 24:4 

(Photographs by the West Surrey Photographic Society. Lent by the Commons and 
Footpaths Preservation Society) 

Ebury Square Garden, Pimlico ...... 254 

(Pliotograph lent by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association) 

St. Katharine Coleman Churchyard ..... 254 

(Pliotograph lent by tlie Metropolitan Public Gardens Association) 

Christchurch Churchyard, Blackpriars Road .... 256 

(Photograph lent by Vie Metropolitan Public Gardens Association) 

St. Botolph's, Aldgate, Churchyard ..... 256 

(Photograph lent by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association) 

The Smoke Plague: Sunday, 11 a.m. ...... 262 

(Pliotograph lent by Dr. C. W. Saleeby) 

The Smoke Plague : Monday, 12 noon ..... 262 

(Photograph lent by Dr. C. W. Saleeby) 

" Best " Westmoreland Slates from the Roof of Chelsea Hospital 268 

(Photograph lent by U. M. Stationery Office on behalf of the Interim Committee cm Smoke 
and Noxious Vapours) 

New and Old Stone Work from the Tower of London . . 268 

(Pliotograph lent by H.M. Stationery Office on behalf of the Interim Committee on Smoke 
and Noxious Vapours) 



PLANS AND DIAGRAMS 

The Railway Problem : 

Suggestions for Dealing with Trunk Lines . . .76 

Suggestions for Dealing with Suburban Lines . . 80 

Suggestions for Dealing with Goods and Coal . . 86 

Suggestions for Dealing with the Parcels Traffic . . 90 

Plan Explanatory of Chapter VIII* showing Suggested New Avenue, 
New Embankment, Lagoon Basin and Position for S.E. and C. 
Railway Station ........ 130 

11 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

TO PACE PAGE 

University of London : The Lever Prize, 1919, Winning Scheme . 146 

The Housing op London : 

Relative Cost op Railway Travel in Greater London . 196 

Areas more than One Mile from a Railway Station . . 198 

Density of Population in Greater London . . . 200 

The Growth of a Century ...... 202 

Growth of Rateable Value, 1871-1911, and of Population, 
1801-1911 204 

Approximate Comparison of Rates .... 206 



12 



INTRODUCTION 

SIR ASTON WEBB, K.C.V.O., C.B., P.R.A. 



CHAPTER 1 

INTRODUCTION 

WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LONDON SOCIETY 

The production of this book has come about in more or less an 
accidental way, and is due almost entirely to the untiring exertions 
and enthusiasm of members of The London Society, who have given 
their time and special knowledge in individual chapters to the 
different problems with which London is faced, and have suggested 
their possible solution. The writers of each article may be con- 
sidered as experts in their subject, and it is hoped that as a result 
some general idea may be gained by the reader of what, in the 
opinion of The London Society, are some of the many pressing needs 
of London. On the other hand, though it will be found that there 
is a general agreement amongst the authors of the various chapters, 
it must be understood that there has been no endeavour to make 
the views expressed therein those of The London Society as a whole, 
for it will be evident that it would be impossible, in the first place, 
to obtain such adherence, and, secondly, that even had this been 
possible it would have tended to dullness and monotony if the 
conclusions of each writer had been fixed beforehand. 

As a result, each writer has had a free hand and is responsible 
for the opinions he has expressed ; but on the other hand it is 
thought that there will not be found much with which the Society 
as a whole is not in accord. 

There will no doubt be some readers who are unfamiliar with 
the objects, aim and work of The London Society, and it may 
therefore be useful briefly to state them here. 

First and foremost, the object of The London Society is to 
interest Londoners in London, and by doing so secure their 
active co-operation in influencing public opinion so as to impress 
the authorities (including the Imperial Government) with the 

15 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

importance of taking a large view of London as a whole, at the 
same time recognizing that while it is obviously impossible to 
carry out all that is required at one and the same time, 
nevertheless, that they may see the importance of securing that 
what is done shall be part of one great scheme, and so give a 
unity and completeness to London improvements of the future 
which has been denied to her in the past. 

This in itself may seem an ambitious programme for any 
independent society to undertake, especially a society with no 
executive power and very limited funds. But there is a power 
greater than office or money which can and does influence such high 
matters, viz. the power of public opinion ; and difficult as it may 
be in so vast a city to create a public opinion, even though it is in 
the public's own interest, yet when once this has been done, all will 
become possible. The London Society is proud to have amongst 
its members many of the most influential Englishmen on such 
matters, and it is confident that they will in time make their 
influence felt. 

There is another power which the Society possesses and which 
it believes in, and that is the power of suggestion — and here 
again the Society is fortunate in having amongst its members 
those who have so ably contributed to this book, who by 
position and education are fully qualified to make illuminating 
suggestions. 

In support of this power of suggestion one may point to 
Gwynn's Suggested Improvements in Westminster, published in 
1766, or to the sketch plans prepared for the improvements 
of Paris in the early part of the nineteenth century, to see 
the influence of these suggestions on the improvements in those 
cities, as subsequently carried out. 

Another aim of The London Society is the jealous preservation 
of all that is old and beautiful in London as far as is possible. It 
appears necessary to emphasize this, as it seems by some to be 
thought that it is the desire and aim of the Society to reconstruct 
London, and to turn it into another Paris, sweeping away any 
parts of old London that may come in its way. Nothing 
could be further from the Society's object, or, it might be added, 
within its power, even if it wished to do so. 

With these objects and aims in view, The London Society was 

16 



INTRODUCTION 

formally inaugurated on February 9, 1912, at a meeting held at 
the Galleries of the Royal Society of British Artists. Subsequently 
the Earl of Plymouth accepted the position of President of The 
London Society, a position he has since held to the great advantage 
of the Society. A little later, on January 13, 1913, a meeting was 
held at the Mansion House under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, 
when Earl Curzon of Kedleston delivered an address and aptly 
described the objects of the Society to be " to make London 
beautiful where it is not so already, and to keep it beautiful 
where it already is." 

Lord Curzon further uttered two words of caution to the Society 
which have ever since been borne in mind, first, that while " the plans 
of the Society should not be lacking in imagination or idealism, 
they should, if they are to be effective, be business propositions," 
and, secondly, that the Society should avoid speculative, imprac- 
ticable and impossible finance. 

No society could have a better send-off than this inspiring 
address by Lord Curzon ; it was subsequently printed in full by 
the Society, and also appeared as an article in the February number, 
1913, of the Nineteenth Century. 

The Society being thus formed and a Council and Executive 
Committee appointed, offices were secured at 27 Abingdon Street, 
Westminster, with Mr. Percy Lovell as Secretary, and later Miss 
Crum as Assistant Secretary, the annual subscription being fixed 
at one guinea, life membership being compounded for by a payment 
of ten guineas. 

Sub-committees were appointed to consider the treatment of 
the south side of the Thames, the Charing Cross improvements 
and the important matter of London's arterial roads and transport. 

In the year following the formation of the Society the member- 
ship quickly increased, and the Society rapidly got to work, taking 
part in the controversy regarding the entrance to the Mall from 
Charing Cross, which resulted in an agreement being come to between 
the Office of Works, the L.C.C. and the Westminster City Council, 
though unfortunately the outbreak of war has so far delayed its 
execution. 

The Society also joined in a deputation to the Prime Minister, 
which was sympathetically received by Mr. Asquith, asking him to 
appoint an authority to lay down the main lines and improvements 

17 B 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

to the arterial roads of London that were so urgently required. The 
Prime Minister suggested that in the first instance a series of con- 
ferences should be held with the local authorities concerned and the 
lines of the roads agreed upon, and that this being done, the 
deputation should come to him again. 

The suggested conferences were held, The London Society taking 
part in them, and the lines of roads were practically agreed upon 
when we again referred to the Prime Minister ; but the war had 
broken out, the Prime Minister was unable to see us, and we were 
referred to the then President of the Local Government Board, 
who in his turn referred us to Sir George Gibb, but the war 
perforce absorbing all attention, nothing further was done at 
the time. 

Since the conclusion of peace, however, a Ministry of Transport 
has been formed with a department dealing with roads, and apparently 
endowed with much the same powers as were suggested by the Society, 
and thus the aim of the Society in this important matter appears 
to have been gained. 

A series of lectures and dinners were also commenced in this 
year 1913, at which papers were read and addresses delivered on 
matters affecting London, and were largely attended. 

A quarterly Journal 1 was also started, when in August of the 
second year of the Society's existence the catastrophe of the 
Great War broke out ; most of the Society's activities had perforce 
to be laid aside, and it says much for so young a stripling that The 
London Society survived the shock. 

But while the regular activities of the Society had to be 
abandoned, the Committee met and decided that the most useful 
work they could be engaged upon during the war would be the 
production of a map of Greater London within a 15-mile radius, 
brought up to date, and showing on one complete map the great 
arterial roads and bypasses as drawn up by the Traffic Branch of 
the Board of Trade and agreed with the local authorities, together with 
certain additions proposed by the Society, including their proposals 
with regard to additional parks, parkways, open spaces and water- 
side reservations around the Metropolis. This scheme had the 
further advantage of giving employment in the preparation of the 
map to a certain number of architects and surveyors, brought to 

1 The issue of the Journal has now been increased to monthly. 
18 



INTRODUCTION 

distress through the war and unfit for military service, though 
unfortunately at only very moderate salaries. 

The idea was at once taken up, and a special committee appointed, 
each member of which undertook the supervision of a particular 
area, and with the help of the Prince of Wales's Fund, the Artists' 
General Benevolent Institution, The Architects' Benevolent Society, 
and private donations, a sum of something like £1,000 was collected 
and expended entirely in salaries, the supervision being given volun- 
tarily. The plan took some three years to execute, and was brought 
up to date with the assistance of the Ordnance Survey Authorities. 
Messrs. Stanford kindly undertook the publication of the plan, and 
it has been most excellently reproduced by them. 

It was first exhibited at King's College by kind permission of 
the University authorities in April 1919, and again at the first 
dinner of the Society after the war, when the Earl of Crewe was the 
principal guest, and it is now permanently exhibited at the London 
Museum. 

An activity which was thrust upon the Society during the war 
arose through the action of the South-Eastern Railway Company 
applying to Parliament in 1916 for powers to strengthen the existing 
railway bridge at Charing Cross. It was obvious that, if this were 
done, any proposal for removing the bridge would be rendered much 
more difficult. The London Society felt compelled to oppose the Bill 
before the House of Lords Committee, as was also done by the L.C.C., 
the Port of London, the Gas Companies, and the Royal Institute of 
British Architects, The London Society being empowered to 
appear before the Committee by special instructions from the House 
of Lords. In the event the Bill was passed by the House of Lords 
but thrown out in the Commons. 

In the following year the Bill was again introduced by the South- 
Eastern Railway Company, this time in the Commons, who reversed 
their previous decision and passed the Bill. The House of Lords 
again referred it to a Select Committee, when The London Society 
and the R.I.B.A. were forsaken by their previous companions, and 
appeared before the Lords Committee alone, with Mr. Honoratus 
Lloyd, K.C., as their counsel. The Committee finally passed the 
Bill, but added some very important conditions, principal among 
them being one debarring the Company from doing any work to the 
bridge above high-water level for a space of three years, in order to 

19 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

give the authorities concerned time to prepare a scheme, and in 
addition declining to sanction any enlargement of the station without 
a further application to Parliament ; and since that time nothing 
has been done by the Company at Charing Cross. 

At the moment the Society is seeking an opportunity to lay 
the matter before the Prime Minister, with a view to the Government's 
support for the removal of the present station to the southern side, 
the construction of a fine road bridge in place of the existing 
unsightly railway bridge, and the erection of a national memorial 
on the site of the present station. In the meantime the Society 
is considering the details of this scheme, together with further 
improvements in the centre of London, which could not be shown 
sufficiently in detail on the development plan already described, 
but which it is proposed to publish later as " the heart of London 
development plan." 

It has been necessary to go somewhat into detail regarding the 
work done by the Society, both in connection with the development 
plan and the Charing Cross bridge removal, as, in spite of all the 
publicity that has been given to both these matters, the public 
seem still to know little of what The London Society has been 

During the war the membership of the Society naturally suffered, 
though new and influential members kept coming in, with the result 
that at the end of 1918 the subscription list stood at a slightly 
higher level than at the end of 1913, while at the end of 1919 it was 
nearly half as much again, and has since largely increased-a very 
encouraging result. 

Having introduced The London Society, the parent ot this 
volume, a short introduction to the various proposals contained in 
the articles may be of use. 

It will be seen that the articles deal with both the aesthetic and 
the practical side of London's requirements of the future ; in many 
cases both sides are treated in the same chapter. 

Mr. Raffles Davison has written a paper on The Opportunities 
of London full of suggestions, cheery hopefulness, and much practical 
wisdom. Above all, he urges Londoners to persevere in well-doing, 
to continue their interest in spite of delay and disappointment, 
remembering that such improvements as are proposed cannot be 
achieved in a lifetime, but while one generation may sow it will 

20 



INTRODUCTION 

probably fall to another to reap. Mr. Davison rapidly reviews the 
opportunities of London, which unfortunately largely consist in 
removing the eyesores already perpetrated by the railway com- 
panies, such as their bridges across the river and roads, their 
stations and sidings. 

The Dean of St. Paul's has lately suggested the blowing up 
of Charing Cross Bridge as our National War Memorial. It would 
be a good beginning. But we must do more than that. We must 
construct as well as destroy ; and Mr. Davison, while suggesting what 
should be done, is at the same time not unmindful of the difficulties 
to be faced and grappled with. He deals with the approaches of 
London Bridge and the Southwark Cathedral — an immensely im- 
portant subject in itself — and the treatment of the river's Surrey 
side. These are not ideal dreams, but practical questions which 
will have to be settled sooner or later and should be seriously 
considered now. 

The London Museum has hardly received the recognition it 
deserves for the work it is doing for London, but it might perhaps 
do still more by looking forward as well as back. The Road Plan 
of The London Society is already on its walls, and already some 
of the roads are being carried out. But how attractive a large 
model would be of the centre of London with its opportunities of 
improvement clearly shown. It should be on a large scale, with 
a gallery round from which one could look down on it and see the 
opportunities of London realized, the river embanked on both 
sides, its new bridges and approaches, railway tracks converted 
into highways, sites for great new buildings provided, etc. The 
London Society would no doubt assist in the preparation of the 
model and its execution, while others would help with their 
pockets. 

But to return to Mr. Davison's essay. He suggests once more 
the creation of a responsible controlling and dii-ecting power in 
touch with the needs of London and the public authorities who 
have to supply them, and there can be little doubt this is required. 
In the meantime, it is for The London Society (and any others who 
will help), by suggestions explained by maps and books and illus- 
trations at dinners and lectures to " keep the mind aglow," feeling 
sure there is, as Mr. Davison says, deep down in our national 
character something that will respond to the realization of the 

21 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

great opportunities of London. Mr. Raffles Davison has himself 
done much work at The London Society to forward this realization. 

In the chapter on Roads, Streets and Traffic of London, by Colonel 
Hellard, the war has already advanced matters more rapidly than 
could have been anticipated when the Society was engaged on the 
development of the London plan. A Ministry of Transport has been 
created, and great things are expected and hoped from it. It was 
feared in the first instance that the interests of the railways might 
unduly overshadow the interests of the roads, but recent events 
have so strikingly shown the importance of good road communi- 
cation that it seems hardly possible that this vital means of 
transport should in the future be overlooked. 

Colonel Hellard, the author of this chapter on roads, was 
Superintendent of the Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade, and 
himself prepared the scheme for the arterial roads which was submitted 
to the various local authorities and included, with certain minor 
alterations and additions, in the Society's development plan. 

A road development plan for London sinks into insignificance 
by the side of a road development plan for the whole of the United 
Kingdom, yet this is what is required, and required immediately. 
No doubt every city and town of the country would willingly 
assist by preparing a road plan of its district, and in doing so 
create an interest locally in the requirements ; for schemes pre- 
pared solely by a large official staff in London cannot possibly 
meet local needs and interests, and must inevitably leave the public 
in ignorance of what is proposed, and therefore without interest in 
the subject. The urgency of this matter of roads is greatly increased 
through the needs of the great housing schemes now being hurried 
forward throughout the country. The sites of large villages, in some 
cases almost towns, are being rapidly selected with what must be 
very imperfect information as to the probable future means of 
access and transport to the adjoining towns, where the demand for 
labour will be greatest, and so the new roads will have to follow 
the sites of the houses and not the houses the roads, which should 
be in convenient proximity to the houses. 

How much of the scheme when settled will be carried out by 
the Government from Imperial funds and how much by local 
authorities has yet to be seen, but it is hoped that the main arterial 
roads, at any rate, may be taken over by the Imperial Government 

22 



INTRODUCTION 

and maintained by them, and thus for the first time since the 
Romans our main roads will be under one control and maintained 
by one central authority. 

The Society may congratulate itself that for the last seven years 
it has never ceased to do what it could by deputations, lectures 
and plans to bring this pressing matter of main roads before the 
Government, and may fairly feel a sense of satisfaction that the 
Government has now taken a step which, if rightly used, should 
remove a great reproach. 

Local authorities must also be awakened to the fact that in 
addition to the welfare of their own ratepayers, which is naturally 
their first and great concern, the welfare of the general good must 
also be considered by them, and that they may most properly be 
asked to consent to the construction of main routes through their 
area, though there may be no apparent or immediate benefit to 
their particular city or borough ; for it may be taken for granted 
that what tends to the prosperity of the country generally tends also 
to the prosperity of the individual cities and boroughs. The careful 
reader of Colonel Hellard's paper will see the lamentable mistakes 
that have been made in connection with our roads, even during 
the last hundred years, often on the mistaken conclusion that the 
railways would supplant the roads, whereas at the end of that time 
it is found that the roads, with the improved modes of transport, 
are for suburban and local traffic the more important of the two. 

This naturally brings us to railways, and the chapter by Mr. H. J. 
Leaning on the subject. Mr. Leaning has for years given attention 
to this subject, and, with the technical assistance of acknowledged 
railway experts, has prepared a very thorough survey of the whole 
position; and here again the war has added urgency and brought 
about a complete change in the problem, which will have to be 
taken up on a vast scale by the Ministry of Transport, and the 
Society hopes Mr. Leaning's suggestions for London may be 
of use. 

The railways cry out for a great scheme of unification and 
intercommunication, for they, like the roads, have grown up without 
a plan and without any large prevision of outlook, but rather, in 
the words of the Traffic Commission, in the individual interests of 
the competing companies. 

We English are a liberty-loving people and presumably, there- 

23 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

fore, object to schemes, but we have suffered in almost every 
department of our public life through this idiosyncrasy. 

In dealing with railways The London Society must regretfully 
record how little they have done for the beauty of London, or indeed 
of any cities or towns through which they pass. Indeed, it is rather 
a matter of joke with them that their bridges, their stations and 
their sidings are useful but not ornamental. London has suffered 
almost without a murmur untold indignities in this respect, and our 
splendid river has been spanned by structures of indescribable ugliness. 
Ruskin raised his voice against the defilement by railways of 
the country-side, but it must be admitted that nature has come 
to the rescue of the companies in the country and clothed their 
railway banks and cuttings with beauty and a flora and entomology 
all their own ; while the long, level tracks and the sweeping curves 
form grateful and graceful features in an undulating landscape. 

While nature has thus covered up to a great extent the sins 
of the companies in the country, it is possible science may come 
to the rescue in the towns and show the railways how they may, 
like the doctors, bury their mistakes by placing their lines and 
stations underground, and it is hoped that the Transport Ministry 
may in due course see to this being done. 

It is electric traction that has made the mere mention of this 
possible, and though electrification is rapidly being applied to 
suburban traffic, yet there are no doubt difficulties at present with 
the main line trains ; still, there can be little doubt that these will 
in due course be overcome, and we shall see all lines disappear into 
the earth at a radius of some 15 miles from Charing Cross, and 
the stations and bridges go with them, while the old railway tracks 
may become highways ; though this is anticipating, and perhaps 
outrunning Lord Curzon's caution. 

The question of the reduction of the London termini will be 
found fully dealt with by Mr. Leaning, together with the suggested 
abolition of central termini for suburban traffic and the elimination 
of passengers' luggage. 

The most difficult of all problems, that of goods, has lately 
been grappled with, and the proposal of a central clearing station 
for goods has been adversely reported upon by a committee especially 
appointed to consider it ; but for parcels and personal luggage up to 
1 cwt. it is suggested thai the present pneumatic tube system might 

24 




THE PROBLEM OF CENTRAL LONDON VIEWED FROM THE AIR. 




THE SMOKE PROBLEM. 
(Ttvo problems that must be solved in the future.) 



INTRODUCTION 

be extended and utilized. The whole chapter will be found full 
of research, suggestion and application. 

During the war a third means of transport was developed by- 
leaps and bounds, viz. Aviation, and the paper by Lord Montagu, 
an acknowledged authority, brings the matter up to date, though no 
one can say what developments still await it. At present one of the 
difficulties for London is the provision of an adequate and centrally 
situated aerodrome, some forty or fifty acres in extent, which we are 
told is required. The provision of this will indeed tax the ingenuity 
of those responsible for the amenities and beauty of London, and 
one must hope in the meantime, by invention and skill, the require- 
ments may be reduced to smaller dimension ; but, however this 
may be, there can be no doubt commercial aviation has come to stay, 
and whatever its subsequent requirements, they will have to be 
met. Lord Montagu predicts a great development in the transport 
of mails to different places by aircraft. If so, a certain relief would 
be automatically given to roads and rails, and any considerable 
increase for passenger and commercial purposes should give a corre- 
sponding relief to London's roads and streets. 

In connection with roads and railways, we come to The Bridges 
of London, ably and scholastically treated by Sir Reginald Blomfield. 
He points out that four of these bridges — London, Waterloo, West- 
minster and Vauxhall — are of good design, while one — Waterloo 
Bridge — is very good. The remaining bridges are not worthy to 
cross the Thames. Several of them are already insufficient to take 
the traffic and will have to be replaced, let us hope, with worthier 
structures, and if the railways can be put under the water and the 
south side embanked, there will still be some hope for the Thames. 

Sir Reginald Blomfield does not even mention the iron railway 
bridges across the Thames, of which there are four. All of them 
carry the South-Eastern and Chatham Railway across the river, 
and one carries the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway 
in addition. None are worthy to remain a moment longer than 
absolutely necessary, while Charing Cross Bridge is not worthy 
to remain at all : firstly, it is only just able to carry its present 
restricted traffic and will soon become unable to do that ; secondly, 
it is extremely unsightly ; and thirdly, it takes the place of a road 
bridge which is urgently needed, and it is perhaps this last point 
that will appeal most to the public. 

25 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

The distance between Westminster and Waterloo Bridges is 
1,200 yards on the north side and 820 yards on the south, 
a greater distance on the northern bank than exists between 
any other of the Metropolitan bridges, and nearly double those 
of Paris. Thousands arriving at Waterloo Station and wishing 
to drive to the neighbourhood of Charing Cross have to go 
round either by Westminster or Waterloo Bridges daily, and 
the same with those wishing to reach Waterloo from Charing 
Cross, while the poor little foot-bridge at Charing Cross is greatly 
congested at times, and Waterloo Bridge is already so overcrowded 
that it will have to be widened or rebuilt unless some relief can 
be afforded by a road bridge at Charing Cross. The position and 
level of the bridge is a matter still under discussion, but the first 
point is to get the authorities to take the matter up seriously and 
make a bridge at Charing Cross as worthy a memorial of the Great 
War at the beginning of this century as Waterloo Bridge is a worthy 
memorial of the great war at the beginning of the last century. 

A great " Place " there should be at either end, with memorials 
to those who have fallen. The miserable and inadequate Charing 
Cross Station would, of course, go, and one be erected on the other 
side, if required, which is doubtful. The measures taken by the 
Society to prevent any unnecessary difficulties being placed in the 
way of the execution of this great scheme have already been referred 
to in a previous part of this Introduction, but time is slipping away 
and will not recur. 

Another chapter that deals with a subject closely affecting 
Charing Cross and the traffic of London is that on The Channel 
Tunnel, by Sir Arthur Fell, one of the foremost supporters of the 
scheme. This is another subject the war has brought into prominence, 
and is believed by many to be nearing a decision, though the Cabinet 
still hesitates between two opinions. Sir Arthur Fell points out that 
this tunnel, if constructed, is going greatly to affect London, and 
" to hold out possibilities of a new and great future for London." It 
would, of course, at once render the present Charing Cross Bridge 
and Station quite impossible, and the author of this chapter, it will 
be seen, contemplates a great Empire Station over the water on 
the Surrey side. His proposals fit in entirely with the views so long 
urged and expressed by The London Society with regard to the 
improvements at Charing Cross, so that, should the experts decide 

26 



INTRODUCTION 

that the making of the tunnel would in no way jeopardize our 
national safety, we must all hope that Sir Arthur Fell's aspirations 
may be fulfilled, and that at the same time a great Metropolitan 
improvement, long advocated by The London Society, may be 
carried out. 

Yet another chapter directly affecting the Thames and London 
traffic is contributed by Mr. Paul Waterhouse, under the title The 
Surrey Side. 

Comparisons are often made, are indeed made by Sir Arthur 
Fell in his chapter, between the condition of the south side of the 
Seine in Paris and the south side of the Thames in London : the 
former prosperous and beautiful, possessing some of the finest public 
buildings in Paris, the latter derelict and almost deserted, yet 
through it is the most direct route from Westminster to London 
Bridge. One reason, no doubt, for this is that while the Seine is a 
comparatively narrow river that seems to connect the one side with 
the other, the Thames is of such a noble width that it seems rather 
to separate them. 

Great things are expected from the Council's excellent example 
of placing the new County Hall on that side, and it is rumoured 
that the Government will some time follow suit with some of their 
buildings. There is one thing we must regret in connection with the 
County Hall, and that is that the Embankment roadway could not 
have been kept open to the public as it is in front of St. Thomas's 
Hospital. The mere erection of public buildings on the south side 
is not enough. What is wanted, and has long been wanted, as pointed 
out by Mr. Waterhouse, is a riverside roadway and embankment 
similar to that provided on the north side, and the cost of which 
would probably be largely met by the value of the reclaimed land. 
Whether this be so or not, it is an improvement long delayed and 
long overdue, and one to which the L.C.C. should forthwith set 
their hand. What the defunct Board of Works carried out with 
so much magnificence should surely not be impossible for the 
L.C.C. on a much restricted length. 

Mr. Paul Waterhouse, as the chairman of the Committee of The 
London Society, which has this particular question in hand, has 
given much time and study to it, and besides the Embankment, 
considers in his chapter the much-debated question of a Temple 
or St. Paul's Bridge, together with the traffic problem on the Surrey 

27 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

side, which up to the present, with its singular difficulties and 
opportunities, has been left almost entirely to chance. But Mr. 
Waterhouse points out a better way, suggesting a position for the 
new station with easy communication with the City and the East 
End, and a lay-out of streets which he believes would " plant hope 
and the chance of prosperity in the very heart of a derelict region 
which has never yet enjoyed the opportunities which its close 
proximity to London proper deserves." But Mr. Waterhouse must 
be left to tell his own story, though he modestly says he anticipates 
his views will be at variance with the views of many in The London 
Society. Even if they are, Mr. Waterhouse's views are always 
well considered and worthy of every consideration, and lead us 
to think. 

The chapter by Professor Adshead, Professor of Town Planning 
at the London University, deals with Central London, perhaps the 
most difficult because it is the most costly of all areas in which to 
carry out improvements, and yet this is the area in which improve- 
ments are most urgently required. 

The congestion is greatest in the City and in the dock area, 
but all the main arteries through Central London require either 
widening or relief roads. This congestion, as Professor Adshead 
points out, has been brought about not only by the increase of 
population, but also by the change of habits of the population. 
As the means of transport increases, the centre is required less and 
less for residential purposes and more and more for business and 
pleasure. The traffic from the Docks increases, and has long out- 
stripped all existing accommodation. The war has left us with a 
legacy of overcrowding in almost every department of town life, 
housing, railways, buses and tubes, streets, docks and roads ; and 
Professor Adshead has much to say and many suggestions to 
make to which the City and Municipal Authorities will do well to 
take heed. 

The Port of London and its Future is dealt with by the Chairman 
of the Port of London Authority, Viscount Devonport, than whom 
no one is so well able to speak of the progress and future of this vital 
spot of the Empire's prosperity, for Lord Devonport has been at the 
head of affairs of the Port of London Authority ever since its 
formation, except for a short time during the war, when he 
patriotically undertook the Food Control. 

28 



INTRODUCTION 

The Authority has only been formed some ten years, but Lord 
Devonport is already able to point to new dock construction, new 
cold storage accommodation, fine office accommodation and the 
commencement of a great housing scheme. As time goes on, The 
London Society hopes that the Authority will take even a wider 
view, and insist on the improvement of approaches and the increase 
of the present inadequate warehouse accommodation in the neigh- 
bourhood to which Professor Adshead refers ; and in the meantime 
The London Society can congratulate London on having a public 
Authority which is doing a great work in a part of London little 
known and little visited, yet this centre is vital not only to 
the welfare of London but to the whole of the Empire, for to this 
centre the produce of the Empire mainly flows. 

The dock area is included in what is generally termed the 
East End, and on this subject The London Society has again been 
specially fortunate in having a chapter from the pen of the Right 
Reverend H. L. Paget, D.D., for ten years Bishop of Stepney and 
now Bishop of Chester. Dr. Paget throws a fascination and romance 
over this neighbourhood that will delight no less than perhaps 
surprise many of our readers, and shows us how the loss of the 
great weaving industry has brought desolation, and an invasion of 
aliens has brought a change over a whole district which should, as 
the Bishop says, have been the last place in the whole world to 
have been allowed to become monotonous and down at heel. 

When the Bishop comes to the future of London, he almost 
regretfully says that the reconstruction of this part is long overdue, 
and hopes when it comes it will recognize the suggestions and indica- 
tions that come from the character and tradition of the place itself. 

But the Bishop goes further and explains with great detail 
and charm the lines on which this reconstruction should proceed 
and the special requirements that have to be met. And then, in 
Part III, he describes the small trades still carried on there, and their 
thankless and ungrateful tasks, although, he says, they are amongst 
the most quick-witted people in the world, and pleads for a very 
gradual and careful reconstruction, with the presence of a noble 
river always in view. 

And then, in Part IV, the Bishop touches on the all-important 
and difficult question of the alien races, who in this part of London 
are rapidly outnumbering and replacing our own. 

29 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

A more sympathetic and suggestive paper on East London 
cannot be imagined, and The London Society must always be grateful 
to Dr. Paget for the time and thought he has given to it. 

Mr. Raymond Unwin, out of his great experience, gives us a 
fascinating chapter on the momentous and stupendous subject of 
The Development of London, a subject that requires the wide outlook 
of the statesman and the technical knowledge of the architect and 
the engineer. And Mr. Unwin's first requirement is for a scheme, 
a broad scheme, capable of endless adjustment in detail, like Mr. 
Ebenezer Howard's plan for a garden city, which he has happily 
lived to see carried out. 

But who is to prepare this scheme ? Mr. Unwin suggests an 
authority appointed for the purpose. If so, it should consist of 
a few of the wisest heads and with the widest vision possible. It 
need not be worked out in great detail, but must contain an idea 
capable of being translated into a practical scheme. Mr. Unwin 
throws out many illuminating suggestions. Like Mr. Niven, he 
pleads for a green belt at least a mile wide round London, and 
garden cities as separate units outside it. He suggests this, apart 
from the health point of view, as a means of putting a stop to the 
continuous growth of an already overgrown and unwieldy city. 
He would have certain areas allocated for residences, others for 
shopping areas, factories and so on. He suggests means should 
be taken to ensure the easy transit of workers to and from their 
work, and points out that with the present congestion people who 
have left the City to live find it difficult to get to the City to work. 
As authors of other chapters have suggested, he would have the 
railways through London electrified and placed underground, and 
such places as Covent Garden, with its huge road transport, removed 
elsewhere, where all the necessary facilities can be provided. 

Mr. Unwin then goes into the interesting possibility of allotting 
land for divers purposes if the land around the City were in one 
ownership, as at Letchworth, and its effect upon its value, and on 
this subject Mr. Unwin must be left to tell his own story. It has 
been thought out with much thoroughness, and striking examples 
are given, and he sums up with the conclusion that wise town- 
planning regulations, Avhiie they will alter the apportionment of 
land values, will cause more increase than reduction. 

Mr. Davidge, in his interesting and exhaustive chapter on The 

30 



INTRODUCTION 

Housing of London, begins with the axiom that good travelling is 
the key to good housing, and once again urges the necessity for the 
proper placing of community centres by some central guiding 
authority and scheme or plan. 

Interesting diagrams are given, showing density of population 
not only in London itself, but also in the fringes, and he then proceeds 
to investigate the causes of recent development — the leasehold 
system, the lack of transit, and the lack of co-ordination by municipal 
authorities. The question of cottage and flat is considered, and by 
diagram it is shown that the incidence of local rates is highest where 
people are poorest, and the remedy suggested is the broadening of 
the rating area. The necessity of an improved standard of housing 
is insisted upon— and not only in the houses themselves but in the 
playgrounds and open spaces around them — and finally the con- 
sideration of the essentials of the home brings a very interesting 
chapter to a close. 

No one could be better fitted to deal with the subject of The 
Government of London than Mr. W. E. Riley, late architect to the 
L.C.C. and author of this chapter. 

Mr. Riley begins by an exhaustive description of the present 
government of London, the number of the authorities, their various 
functions and the mode of their election, and, in considering how 
far the present organization of such an immense system can be 
improved, points out that, unlike the representatives at St. Stephen's, 
their services are given free, although a high standard of general 
knowledge is obviously required, and that fully three years is 
necessary to get even an elementary knowledge of the important 
public work required. 

If London is extended to Greater London, Mr. Riley shares the 
view that seems to be very rapidly gaining ground, that in the end 
the detail must be delegated to local authorities, with a great co- 
ordinating central body with parliamentary duties, and looked 
upon as a career of itself and not merely as a stepping-stone to 
St. Stephen's. 

This chapter will give some idea of the enormous, complicated 
and responsible duties at present thrown upon the authorities charged 
with the government of London, duties made none the lighter by 
the number of authorities and the haphazard and disjointed way 
in which they have from time to time been set up. 

31 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

Mr. Niven deals eloquently with The Parks and Open Spaces 
of London and the value they are to the health and well-being of a 
crowded city like London. He points out that though London is 
at first sight well provided with open spaces, they are ill distributed, 
and urges the importance of an uninterrupted space right round 
London, which he thinks might even yet be obtained, together with a 
civic park for each borough. This may not be obtainable, and a glance 
at the Society's development plan shows how much is still possible, 
and in the unbuilt areas round London, where land can still be had 
at almost agricultural values, it behoves the local authorities to see 
to it while there is yet time. Mr. Niven has many suggestions for 
the improvement of our parks and open spaces and the construction 
of boulevards and promenades, which in themselves would form 
breathing spaces and opportunities for exercise and recreation. He 
pleads for an extended use of the squares now closed and deserted, 
and we all know how Leicester Square and Lincoln's Inn Fields— 
to quote two very different examples— have been opened with nothing 
but good to all concerned. Further, Mr. Niven urges an extended use 
of roof gardens when the Smoke Abatement Society has done its work. 

Another great open space he deals with is the Thames, with 
its tributary streams, and lastly the canals, which are now nearly 
derelict, though commissions have sat and committees have reported 
on them as a very useful subsidiary branch of transport, but so far 
nothing has been done. 

Lord Meath's name in connection with open spaces and the 
best interests of London is too well known to need any introduction. 
He is also an active spirit in the Empire movement, and in the 
chapter on London as the Heart of the Empire he urges that in the 
changed conditions produced by the war London should become 
not only the capital of England but the capital of the Empire. 
He would have resident representatives of the Dominions co-opted 
on to the governing bodies of the City Corporation and the London 
County Council, so that all parts of the British Empire may feel 
they have a governing interest in their great Empire. Lord Meath 
therefore advises that no effort should be spared to make London 
worthy of its larger significance. He advocates the making of a 
continuous avenue uniting all the parks and gardens round London 
and the conversion of the Euston Road into a ring, as at Vienna 

and Cologne. 

32 





WATERMEADS, MITCH AM. 

{These views ore port of the. Riverside Reservations shown on the Development Plan 
prepared by The London .Society.) 



INTRODUCTION 

He further proceeds to point out that while there are number- 
less streets that can be removed without loss, care must be taken 
to preserve all those interesting historic and homely features we 
love and which give to London its greatest attraction. Lord Meath 
compares the proportion of open space per acre to the population 
in London, Paris and Berlin, to the great advantage of London, 
and advocates still further extensions of open spaces such as we 
should expect from one who, as Chairman of the Metropolitan Public 
Gardens Association, has done so much pioneer work in increasing 
the public pleasure grounds of London. 

It is mainly owing to the late Sir William Richmond that any 
improvement in the condition of the London atmosphere is due. 
Sir William refers in his chapter on The Smoke Plague of London 
to the various efforts made from time to time by the Government 
and Local Authorities to abate the nuisance with little result. 
Even the London County Council, who succeeded in 1891 in apply- 
ing the smoke abatement provisions of the Public Health Act, 1875, 
to the Metropolis, failed to make these provisions effective, and in 
these circumstances Sir William Richmond formed in 1899 the 
Coal Smoke Abatement Society as an independent body determined 
to see that any existing laws there were should be obeyed. 

Sir William gives an interesting account of the Society's 
activities and efforts, which have certainly resulted in a considerable 
improvement in the air, and a debt of gratitude is due to him and 
his Society for these efforts. In 1914 the Local Government Board 
appointed a Departmental Committee on Smoke Abatement, on 
which the writer of these notes sat for a short time ; but its proceedings 
were interrupted by the war, and it has only lately resumed its 
sittings under Lord Newton's chairmanship. There can be no doubt 
that the removal of the hideous veil of dirt and grime, which lowers 
our vitality, obscures all our buildings and monuments, and very 
often the City itself, is one of the first necessities for the beautification 
of London. During the coal strike in the spring of this year (1921) 
it was noticeable that the London atmosphere was appreciably 
cleared, and in this direction the solution of the problem may be 
near at hand, for we are told that the increased use of oil, electricity 
and gas will do much to abolish the smoke plague of London. 

Sir William Richmond is a great loss, and a successor is sorely 
needed to continue the crusade. Who will volunteer ? 

33 c 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

This series of short chapters or essays is appropriately con- 
cluded by a chapter by Lord Crewe, than whom no one has taken 
a keener or more beneficial interest in the welfare of London and 
Londoners and in the preservation and increase of its amenities. 
Lord Crewe points out the value to London of its past history, not 
only in its buildings but also in the memories of the great men who 
in succeeding generations have lived in it. Some of them he mentions 
in a few graceful touches, and concludes with the same moral as 
Lord Curzon's at the first meeting of The London Society, that in 
designing great London improvements we ought to revere, and so 
far as is possible conserve, what is left of London of the past. 

It only remains to thank once more, on behalf of The London 
Society, all who have contributed to this book, and to express the 
hope that it may have some influence in solving the many very 
pressing problems with which the future of London is surrounded. 

Aston Webb, 
Chairman of Council. 

March 1921. 



84 



THE OPPORTUNITIES OF LONDON 

T. RAFFLES DAVISON, Hon. A.R.I.BA. 



CHAPTER II 

THE OPPORTUNITIES OF LONDON 

The chief object of this book on London is, I assume, to quicken 
the thought and stir the imagination of its citizens and all those 
who take a genuine interest in the well-being and aspect of the 
capital of the Empire. So far as the things suggested are desirable 
and possible, they will answer their purpose if they help in any 
material way towards the forethought and enterprise which are 
imperatively demanded in the continuous evolution of a great city. 
The problem is one compounded of many issues, for whilst the 
economic results are of vast importance, so also are the ideals of 
beauty and dignity which are necessary to be kept before us. One 
of the most urgent and difficult aspects of the problem, too, lies in 
the continual changes and developments which are bound to accom- 
pany the progress of invention and enterprise. The gradual but 
certain alterations in modes of transport alone, forced into great 
significance by recent events, involve constant thought and pre- 
paration, and the time must surely come when certain limits will 
have to be fixed against the terrible congestion which threatens 
the well-being and life of modern cities. Having said this much, 
it may perhaps be easier to enlist the sympathies of our readers : 
unless our own imagination can be fully roused as to the possi- 
bilities which lie ahead of us, we shall never be able to deal 
adequately with the problem of London. 

A consideration of the opportunities for the improvement and 
development of London leads to the conclusion that the point of 
view from which they may be regarded must be very fully taken 
into account. It is obvious that many things which might be done 
to dignify and beautify would be impracticable in view of the need- 
ful balance to be drawn between considerations of art and utility. 

37 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

It is desirable that proper economical and practical needs should 
have weight as well as the great importance of giving expression to 
the ideals of beauty and dignity which are essential to the vast con- 
gregation of buildings, squares, parks and streets which indicate 
the wants of a great population. The discussion which has been 
evoked by the proposition for a new road bridge at Charing Cross 
shows how complicated and varied are the influences for and 
against city development. In the very forefront of all schemes 
for the improvement of the Thames environment on the north 
and south sides comes the railway question. Once remove the 
railway difficulties and the task of improvement is lightened to an 
enormous degree. The blemishes over our fine river and about its 
banks are owing largely to what were once considered necessities, 
but should now be regarded as difficulties to be overcome. Once 
imagine Charing Cross, Cannon Street and St. Paul's Stations 
removed, alluring chances of great improvements present them- 
selves, as a set-off against which it might be claimed that almost 
insuperable obstacles are presented. The point of view from which 
city improvements can be regarded varies so greatly that it is almost 
impossible to foresee the extent and character of the opposition 
which will be offered. We can understand much of it, such as the 
financial difficulties, and the questions of trade, transport and 
private interests, but the visionary or the idealist (who is said to 
be the only really practical person in the world) has to insist that 
the practical issues involved must also be considered as well as 
those visions of beautification which form the crown and flower 
of all things. 

It is in the hope of inspiring to some extent the ambitions of 
London citizens for a finer and more beautiful city that certain 
improvements are suggested ; if they are worth paying the price 
of cost and effort, they will surely be carried through, but if not, 
they may at least suggest something which may be as good, or better. 
It is one of the penalties attending all enthusiastic efforts for any 
given ideals that those who persist in them may be set down as 
dogmatic or unreasonable. 

Briefly put, the great need of the time is for adequately designed 
schemes for better transport facilities — fine roads, definite plans 
for city beautification, and control as to the location of certain 
classes of buildings. Beyond this we need a paramount authori- 

38 



THE OPPORTUNITIES OF LONDON 

tative body, with full powers for the enforcement of the designed 
improvements. 

The splendid opportunities which the future holds for London 
can never be fully realized without the express wish and demand 
of its citizens. It is impossible to believe that the inertia which 
exists can be overcome by the already overworked official staffs. 
To realize these opportunities we must have a large vision, a great 
ideal, and a strong determination for the best. 

There is so much more in the right development of London 
than the making of fine streets and buildings that the heart of the 
problem is only reached by studying the economic side of it. If 
we do not put the right kind of buildings and markets in the right 
places, we not only spoil the general amenity but we increase the 
difficulties of transport. The best places for factories, for ware- 
houses, for wholesale trade establishments, for new or extended 
Government Departments, for hospitals, schools, churches, etc., are 
not now to be considered in the light of former days, when anything 
was allowed to be put anywhere. Now that great central railway 
stations and hospitals are out of favour, the planning of towns is 
largely affected. We are thus driven to an order of procedure in 
dealing with city planning something like the following : 

1. The first thing to be settled is the most desirable locality 

for every different class of building, and the aim will be 
to approximate as nearly as may be to the ideal. 

2. The next thing is to devise the best possible means of trans- 

port to and from the various parts of a city so that the 
largest numbers may be best conveyed to their objectives. 

3. The final aim will be how to effect the above objects in the 

most practical, convenient and beautiful way. 

It is apparent enough that you cannot hope to bring an old 
city up to the highest standard of requirements under the above 
heads, but after all London has to exist, and carry on its life 
as a great modern city. The many difficulties which are raised 
by an old-established order of things in the pathway of improve- 
ment are not at first apparent, but the creation of vested interests 
is alone a serious matter, and raises financial difficulties which 
are often insuperable. On the other hand, judiciously planned im- 

39 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

provements produce new values of a very important kind. This 
may be fully illustrated by considering what would happen if a new 
Charing Cross Bridge was built, starting from a little above the 
present level of the Embankment. The increased value of such 
buildings as the National Liberal Club, the Hotel Metropole and 
Hotel Cecil, with an outlook over a continuous line of Embankment 
Gardens instead of the dismal block caused by the present bridge 
and station, would surely be very considerable. Besides this, all 
the ground now covered by the present road access to Charing 
Cross Station would become an asset of exceptional value. The 
new street from the Embankment up to the Strand would contain 
some of the finest business sites in the West End, whilst the whole 
effect of spaciousness and dignity about Charing Cross would be 
worthy of a great civic centre. 

We have only to imagine aboveground railways into London 
replaced by an underground service to see at once how some of the 
worst eyesores in London would disappear and more valuable areas 
of building land be set free. The bridges crossing the roadways 
at London Bridge, those crossing the lower end of Queen Victoria 
Street and Ludgate Hill, and the most absurd one of all at Charing 
Cross would go, and tunnel-like coverings over fine roadways would 
be things of the past, whilst cheerful spaces and fine road vistas 
would be opened up. Can we doubt that this is only a question 
of time ? 

During many discussions in the last seven or eight years it has 
been made increasingly clear that the only way to grapple effectively 
with the problem is to approach it from various standpoints and 
concentrate the attention of committees on different areas. Amongst 
the divisions of the whole was the development of the possi- 
bilities of improvement for the river area, with more especial 
reference to the south side of the Thames, and a South Side 
Committee was formed to deal with it. This South Side Com- 
mittee of The London Society sat at frequent intervals, commencing 
its work with the urgently needed improvement of traffic over the 
river at Charing Cross. It was soon made clear that though it was 
very desirable to have a new bridge at Charing Cross and a fine 
new southern embankment, the whole subject of the London rail- 
way service loomed largely in the foreground of all satisfactory 
developments. It was felt that whilst the present arrangement 

40 



THE OPPORTUNITIES OF LONDON 

of railway service continued, no fully satisfactory treatment of 
the river and its adjacent area could possibly be obtained. The 
awkward arrangement and crossing of railways at London Bridge, 
the in-and-out service to Cannon Street and the linking up of 
northern and southern services appeared to be impossible of 
acceptance as continuing factors for the future. This, of course, 
involves a consideration of the financial interests of the various 
companies and the efficient service for public needs, and unless 
these important matters can be satisfactorily solved it is futile to 
attempt laying down schemes of fine boulevards, new buildings and 
adequate bridges. It would have been -an education for anyone 
interested in the future of London to have joined in the considera- 
tions which came before this South Side Committee. It was some 
time before the many points which were involved in the matter 
came to be realized in their full importance, and it was felt that 
the relative values would never be satisfactorily settled without the 
provision of some controlling authority, which should deal with 
the problem as a whole and impartially with the varying and 
possibly conflicting interests. 

It would be a delightful task to set forth an ideal treatment 
for the banks and environment of the fine river which divides 
London into north and south areas, and as it is the ideal which 
should govern and inspire the practical, it would have been well if 
this had been attempted, so that the public might be able to judge 
how fine it could be, and then to demand as near an approach 
to the ideal as is practicable. The carrying out of the Channel 
Tunnel, which seems nearer now than ever before, largely affects 
the matter, and adds both to the ultimate possibilities of great 
design and the difficulties of solution. 

If we briefly name our opportunities, it is enough to show how 
great they are. To begin with London Bridge, it is obvious that 
the approaches both on the north and south side present visions 
to the idealist of surpassing value, where we find horrible combina- 
tions of railway bridges crossing the roadways and mean and 
awkwardly placed stations. Contrast these with the splendid possi- 
bilities of opening up Southwark Cathedral to the river front and 
the creation of a noble approach to the City which would be possible 
at the north end of London Bridge. Suppose that the Fishmongers' 
Hall and the new buildings to be erected on the balancing site on 

41 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

the east side could be finished in harmony with a worthy street 
leading up to a fine civic centre, where now the poor statue of King 
William stands in front of a haphazard rounded corner of ordinary 
commercial buildings. These are points which appeal most strongly 
to the idealist. 

Then if we consider the possibility of doing away with the 
ugly Cannon Street Station and its railway bridge, how fine 
would be the opening up of the view, and what increase to the 
value of the adjoining property ! Further west we have the 
Southwark Bridge being improved, and a projected scheme for 
a St. Paul's Bridge to end on the south side — only some 300 feet 
apart from the other ! At Blackfriars the road bridge is spoilt 
by the hideous South-Eastern and Chatham railway bridge close 
alongside it, and then at Charing Cross we have the eyesore of 
Charing Cross railway bridge, breaking into a stretch of one of 
the finest riverside gardens in the world, which should surely have 
a clear unbroken prospect from Waterloo to Westminster. In view 
of the possibilities, this is perhaps the most appalling mischance 
along the whole river. 

Those who desire a new road bridge at Charing Cross and the 
removal of the station to the other side of the river appear to be 
in a great majority, but to some of these the importance of a cross- 
river road starting from the level of the Strand is a pre-eminent 
factor, while to others the direct access from the Embankment to 
the new bridge and the continuity of the gardens from Waterloo to 
Westminster are of far greater importance. This is not the place 
to discuss rival schemes, but if the imagination of the public can 
be stirred by the great possibilities which lie before us, it may well 
be left to further detailed discussion to arrive at the best result. 
At all events, it is claimed that a low-level bridge is a possibility 
and that the schemes suggested are the result of practical and 
detailed consideration. After the years of obstruction offered to 
the Embankment by the obnoxious railway bridge, it is a worthy 
aim to remove it for ever. The slight raising of the Embankment 
level to form a starting-off point for the new road bridge would 
prove no difficulty either from a practical or artistic point of view, 
and nowhere need there be a road gradient of more than 1 in 50. 

The Victoria Embankment is one of the achievements of the 
Victorian era of which we may well be proud, and to create another 

42 



THE OPPORTUNITIES OF LONDON 

embankment on the south side of equal quality would at once 
transform the Thames into one of the finest waterways in the world. 
The idea of a transcontinental railway reaching a magnificent rail- 
way terminal on the south side of the river, and approached direct 
from Trafalgar Square over an Imperial Way and bridge and through 
a King Edward's Place in the southern embankment, should surely 
stir the desires of all who would see London take its place as a 
capital city worthy of the Empire. It has been argued that a War 
Memorial should not be wholly a utilitarian affair, but a worthy 
memorial would assuredly be one which would add to the city 
grandeur, combined with the public usefulness of such a scheme 
as this. 

Fine thoroughfares of approach to London from the outside 
are sadly lacking. It is curious that we should find one of our 
best in the Mile End Road in the East End ! We have nothing 
comparable to the great road from Charlottenburg into Berlin. Yet 
the possibilities lie before us. 

It has often been stated that idealists bring forward costly and 
impossible schemes for towns, that they urge the creation of vistas, 
squares, fine roadways and open spaces which are too burdensome 
for realization. If all the suggested improvements had to be put 
in hand within a limited period, we might well call them impossible, 
but if we want a noble city these sort of things are sheer necessities, 
to be obtained as soon as is economically possible. In some cases 
our roadways are actually too wide, and if the streams of traffic 
were kept in well ordered lines space might often be saved ; the 
principle of gyratory traffic could be more frequently developed. 
A fine city needs fine vistas, important centres should have some 
cohesion of architectural effect, circuses and squares ought not to 
be surrounded by haphazard collections of buildings ; our pave- 
ments are generally too narrow, street signs and advertisements 
are too much out of control, whilst all sorts of ugliness are permitted 
in the uppermost levels and skylines of buildings. 

Every time some great new building is projected, the question 
of its site should not be left to be settled chiefly or entirely on 
practical grounds— the governing body of a great city should hardly 
encourage the establishment of warehouses in a street like Kings- 
way or pickle and jam factories anywhere in the best parts of 
the city. When a fine site is wanted for a new Opera House or a 

43 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

University, should it not be of great moment to the community 
that it should be provided in such a place that the city effect may be 
ennobled and beautified ? Large buildings are now being projected, 
and their location should be one of our serious considerations. If 
we examine the different proposals for creating changes and im- 
provements in certain specific places or areas, we find that the 
objects of the various designers vary greatly, and that no uni- 
formity of agreement as to what is desirable can be arrived at 
amongst those whose outlook is so different ; yet this is a serious 
obstacle to success. 

The length of a single lifetime is so short that the efforts of 
individuals go very little way to influence the life of a city. It is 
quite certain that a body like The London Society cannot afford 
to live only in the present. Those who are now devoting their 
thoughts and energy to furthering its aims are only preparing the 
ground for others who will follow, and no isolated efforts, however 
splendid they may be, will go for much unless the citizens of London 
and their governing bodies will continue from one generation to 
another to pursue great ideals with persistent courage. Little 
indeed does the average citizen realize how great are the visions 
and how deep are the disappointments which some amongst us see 
and feel as the opportunities of London rise before us and disappear. 
We have lost opportunities at the London Bridge approaches, in 
the final treatment of the Mall approach, in the adequate setting of 
fine buildings on the Embankment, in the worthy treatment of 
several great new thoroughfares, in the creation of beautiful vistas 
in and about our beautiful river — in a thousand ways we have not 
done what we ought to have done, and left undone so much that 
we might. Our city is still untidy, our streets congested, our 
love of money supreme, and still across the south side of the 
River Thames lie the muddy banks of derelict London ! 

What are we to think of the long perspective of opportunities 
which crowd into mind, of the opportunities lost, or neglected, or 
still possible, for the creation of a better and more beautiful London ? 
Is it not obvious that those whose thoughts have been led in this 
direction should desire to give some expression to them as the 
importance of the subject continually grows and presses for more 
definite and practical consideration ? Though the subject bristles 
with difficulties, which seem to increase the more it is considered, 

44 



THE OPPORTUNITIES OF LONDON 

the interest and fascination also increase with every step we take. 
It is by no means a new subject, and it has occupied the thoughts 
of able minds for many years past. 

If the finest imaginable schemes were displayed to-day for 
the improvement of London, it would not follow that we should be 
a whit nearer great improvements, for the machinery for turning 
them into possibilities is lacking. Our only real hope lies in the 
creation of a responsible controlling and directing power which 
shall be urged into action by the determined desire and enlightened 
opinion of the public. Very interesting are the designs put forward 
by able men, but where ideals differ so widely, who shall decide ? 
The provision of light and air to the greatest amount would be the 
foremost feature in the ideals of many who care little in comparison 
for the impressiveness of ponderous buildings : our beautiful wide 
waterway would never be encroached upon in any future they 
devise, no streets like tunnels or darkening piles would be tolerated 
by them. To some folk the ponderosity of Berlin makes a strong 
appeal, to others the lightness and grace of Paris, but let us hope 
that those who have some say in the further improvement of London 
will find a way to give us all the dignity which should be expected 
in a great city without undue sacrifice of that picturesque quality 
which is natural to our race and without any sacrifice whatsoever of 
our heritage of light and air in river, roads, parks and squares. Some 
at least amongst us must go on seeing visions and dreaming dreams 
in face of all the hard facts which progress and enterprise constantly 
bring before us. Is it too much to hope that deep down in our 
national character there is something which will respond to the 
appeal which is now being made to realize the great opportunities 
for the creation of a greater and more beautiful city ? 



45 



ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC 
OF LONDON 

COLONEL R. C. HELLARD, C.B. 



CHAPTER III 

ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC OF LONDON 

The system of main roads in Greater London has been gradually 
built up in a somewhat haphazard way, based on the six main roads 
that date from the time of the Romans, represented to-day by : 

Edgware Road . . Leading to St. Albans . . . . . . Watling Street. 

Kingsland Road . . Leading to Cambridge . . . . . . Ermine Street. 

Romford Road . . Leading to Colchester . . . . . . — 

Dover Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Watling Street. 

Clapham Road . . Leading to Leatherhead and Worthing . . Staine Street. 

Basingstoke Road . . .... . . . . . . . . — 

There are nineteen main roads radiating from the County 
of London, which develop into twenty-three further out as they 
approach the boundaries of Greater London. None of these roads 
can be said to be of really adequate width throughout for the 
traffic they are called on to carry. 

Paris, with less than half the population of London, has forty- 
two main roads radiating from the city into the surrounding 
country, and of these twelve are more than 100 feet wide. 

So long ago as 1809, in the days of the mail coaches, attention 
was being directed to the insufficient widths of the main roads 
leading out of London, and some form of central control was then 
contemplated ; but the subsequent introduction of railways, which 
drew the traffic from the roads, did away with all chance of their 
improvement at that time, and allowed the control of the roads to 
once more drift back into the hands of the various local administra- 
tions, with the result that the road system of to-day is very much 
as it stood more than a hundred years ago. 

NECESSITY FOR IMPROVEMENT. 

Now that the introduction of motor transport has for some 

49 d 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

years been attracting the traffic from the railways back to the 
roads, the urgency of improvement as regards both capacity and 
control has become acute, but to attain success there are two 
things absolutely essential, apart from financial considerations : 

1. A general scheme to which all projects should conform. 

2. Co-operation among all the authorities, owners, and agencies 

concerned. 

For some years past the local authorities and the general 
public have taken more interest in the roads and streets of the 
Metropolis and have shown a greater desire to effect improvements 
than the Government of recent years has ever exhibited. The 
Government expressed its sympathy from time to time, to a 
limited extent, by the appointment of the 1905 Royal Commission 
and by the prosecution of inquiries in other forms ; but in the 
long run it left the question exactly where it stood before, and until 
recently did nothing further to bring about some definite result. 
It must be admitted that it appointed a Road Board in 1909, 
but expectant London was even more disappointed with that 
body than by the former deplorable lack of action on the part of 
the Government. 

COMPLEX NATURE OF THE PROBLEM. 

London is the largest and most important of the densely 
inhabited areas in the world, and is the capital of the 
Empire, yet its highly complex system of government entails diffi- 
culties not ordinarily met with. The County of London, with an 
area of 116*9 square miles, contains 27 boroughs, besides the cities 
of London and Westminster ; and the outside ring which completes 
the Metropolitan Police area an additional 575*94 square miles, 
comprising a further 9 boroughs, 65 urban districts, and portions 
of 13 rural districts situated in five different counties. Within this 
large area of 692*84 square miles, with its population of 7,250,000, 
the London County Council is the principal central authority ; but 
its jurisdiction, which does not extend beyond the London County 
boundary, is not supreme, as all the cities and boroughs in the 
county have a voice in these matters, while the outside administra- 
tive units are all equally independent and self-assertive. 

50 



ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC 

STEPS TOWARDS A SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM. 

The Arterial Roads Conferences which met between 1914 and 
1916 showed that practically all the local authorities concerned 
took a keen interest in the subject, and arrived at a wonderful degree 
of unanimity as to what is absolutely necessary and as to the 
urgency of the matter ; but no definite steps with a view to carrying 
out any of the approved schemes were taken at that time, and there 
seemed no likelihood of this consummation without some central 
authority to provide the initiative. 

The establishment of a London and Home Counties Authority 
was considered by a joint committee of The London Society and of 
the Town Planning Institute, and a Bill was drafted to give effect 
to this proposal. It was not intended to supersede or interfere 
with the existing authorities, but to co-ordinate their efforts and 
deal with the larger questions of development, housing, and 
transport throughout the extended area of the Metropolis. The 
Bill, however, was not proceeded with, as it was hoped that other 
action would be taken at once as regards the roads, whereon the 
housing schemes, which are of such pressing importance, must 
be based. 

A Select Committee on Transport, with Mr. H. Wilson-Fox 
as chairman, was appointed on August 6, 1918, but, unfortunately, 
owing to the close of the session, its work was not completed, and 
its reports were therefore only of a preliminary nature. 

Another Select Committee on Transport (Metropolitan Area), 
with Mr. W. Kennedy Jones as chairman, was appointed on May 29, 
1919. It attributed the demoralization of traffic in Greater 
London to the absence of a Supreme Traffic Authority possessing 
executive powers to control, co-ordinate and safeguard public 
interests ; and it recommended the immediate creation of a Supreme 
Traffic Board for Greater London, with executive power covering 
the Metropolitan Police area. No immediate action, however, was 
taken in this direction pending the passing of the Transport Bill 
then before the House. 

MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT. 

The Royal Assent was given to the Transport Bill in August 
1919. The powers conferred on the Ministry under that Act are 

51 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

not altogether sufficient to meet some of the problems to be dealt 
with, but the appointment by the Ministry of an Advisory Com- 
mittee on London Traffic, presided over by Mr. W. Kennedy Jones, 
gives great hope that there will be no further delay in taking such 
steps as are possible, under existing powers, to relieve the present 
congestion, and that the necessity for the immediate improvement 
of traffic facilities in and aroimd London in its various aspects will 
be energetically pressed forward with a view to such further 
legislation being initiated at an early date as may be found 
necessary to meet the situation. 



INCREASED COST OF DELAY. 

It is most unfortunate that so much valuable time has been 
lost already ; and, as a consequence, where fifteen or twenty years 
ago many improvements could have been made in the growing 
sections of the immediate outskirts for very little, they will to-day 
cost from five to ten times as much to carry out. As regards the 
construction of new roads and the widening and improvement of 
old ones, the policy of leaving each generation to deal with its 
own problems as they arise is unnatural and unsound, where with 
ordinary foresight such problems need never have arisen had the 
previous generation realized its proper responsibilities in the 
matter. To make provision merely for to-day's requirements is 
therefore not sufficient. We should look well ahead and provide 
for the future. In this connection, Liverpool has set an example 
that might well be followed by London. 

The time lost daily by millions of people through insufficient 
road accommodation represents a loss of money which, though 
impossible to estimate with accuracy, must be very large ; and 
yet we have been content to allow delay due to congestion of traffic 
in the streets to go on increasing year by year without any serious 
attempt to deal with it. It has been stated that the cost of transport 
in London is 30 per cent, higher than in any other large town, 
and therefore the cost of this inaction is so heavy that it would 
seem to be the cheaper course in the long run to take the matter 
up energetically at once, and recognize that the money thus laid 
out for the public benefit is really a most excellent investment, 
calculated to save millions of pounds in the future. 

52 



ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC 

GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE ROADS. 

A census taken on April 26, 1911, showed that while the 
residential population of the City was under 20,000— mostly care- 
takers—the day population at work in the City was over 360,000, 
exclusive of the 1,077,000 persons who merely entered the City on 
that day between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Of the journeys made by this 
vast migratory population in various public vehicles in 1909, 40 per 
cent, were made by rail and 60 per cent, by road ; but in 1913 
only 32 per cent, were made by rail, with an increase by road to 
68 per cent., while the total number of journeys per head of 
the population of London during this period increased by over 
30 per cent. 

The growing importance of the roads is further emphasized by 
the rapidity with which motors have been substituted for horse 
vehicles. Among passenger vehicles enumerated in 1914 only 
4 per cent, were horse-drawn ; and this change was rapidly extend- 
ing to the commercial world, for whereas in 1911 94 per cent, of 
the trade vehicles were horse-drawn, in 1914 they were reduced to 
85 per cent. Moreover, the number of vehicles enumerated each 
year on most of the roads leading out of London showed a marked 
increase, amounting as a total to 19 per cent, in 1914 over 1911. 
It is of interest to note that the greatest increase occurred in the 
zone lying between the 6- and 9-mile radius from St. Paul's, the 
figures being : 

Within 3-mile radius . . . . . . . . . . 10 per cent. 

From 3 to 6 miles radius . . . . . . 20 „ 

From 6 to 9 miles radius . . . . . . . . . . 33 „ 

Beyond the 9-mile radius. . . . . . . . . . 19 „ 

Due, however, to the shorter length of the motor vehicle, its greater 
pace and flexibility, which all go to lessen the period of its road 
occupation, the coefficient of obstruction for each class of vehicle 
is reduced, and therefore the volume of traffic does not increase at 
quite the same rate as the number of vehicles so long as this transfer 
from horse to motor is in progress. The traffic census taken each 
year from 1911 to 1914 showed that this coefficient of the average 
vehicle during that period was thus gradually reduced by about 
6 per cent., and that it was greatest in the centre zone, with a very 
marked fall as the distance from St. Paul's increased, amounting 

53 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

to as much as 18 per cent, in the outer zone beyond the 9-mile 
radius. 

NATURE OF THE TRAFFIC AND HOW DISTRIBUTED. 

The nature of the traffic in the east of London differs very 
materially from that in the west. The census of 1912 showed 
that commercial vehicles largely predominated in the north-east, 
forming as much as 65 per cent, of the traffic, while in the south- 
west only 41 per cent, were trade vehicles, the coefficients of 
obstruction of the average vehicle in these cases being respectively 
5-1 and 3*2. 

Of the daily traffic on the bridges in 1914, Westminster, 
London and Blackfriars Bridges carried the largest number of 
vehicles : 18,671, 18,387 and 17,550 respectively ; but due to 
inadequate width, Tower Bridge is the most congested, with 
Waterloo and London Bridges next in order of density. London 
Bridge, however, should experience some relief when the recon- 
struction of Southwark Bridge is complete and the bridge reopened 
for traffic. 

Within the radius of 3 miles from St. Paul's it may be said 
that all the streets which carry through traffic are congested. 
Apart from the bridges and some few well-known centres, such as 
the Mansion House, Hyde Park Corner, etc., where the enumeration 
of vehicles presents very great difficulties and is not of the same 
practical utility, the points in order where the greatest volume of 
traffic has been noted are : Holborn, near Gray's Inn ; Piccadilly, 
by the Ritz Hotel ; Kennington Park Road ; London Road, Wal- 
worth ; Commercial Road East ; Whitechapel Road ; Bishopsgate ; 
and Oxford Street, west of the Circus. The points in order at which 
the greatest congestion occurs are : London Road, Walworth ; Old 
Street ; Peckham High Street ; Camberwell Road ; Kingsland Road, 
near Stamford Street ; and Gray's Inn Road. 

Beyond the 3-mile radius, Canning Town Bridge carries the 
largest volume of traffic, and is the most congested point, with 
London Road, Deptford, next, and Bow Bridge to follow. At a 
distance of some 5 to 7 miles from St. Paul's, traffic on the main 
roads is still great at such points as Shepherd's Bush, Hammer- 
smith, Putney (where the congestion is serious), Tooting Graveney, 
Streatham, and along the Cambridge, Colchester and Southend Roads. 

54 



ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC 

Nearer the 9-mile radius and beyond, the volume of traffic 
continues to be considerable on the various main roads to Oxford, 
Bath and Basingstoke, Brighton, Colchester, Cambridge, and along 
the Great North Road, with points of very serious congestion at 
Brentford and Croydon. There are also many other points where 
danger and occasional congestion arise, either from the inadequate 
capacity of the roadway or from some sharp turn or crossing of 
another road, where relief or improvement is urgently needed. 

TRAFFIC OBSTRUCTIONS. 

Generally speaking, the principal defect in the present road 
system is the inadequate width of the streets and the haphazard 
plan on which they are laid out, whereby many lengths of good 
wide roads lead nowhere, and in consequence do not carry their 
proper proportion of traffic. The nature of the road surface affects 
traffic considerably, but as a rule, until quite recently, there has 
not been much to complain of in the Metropolis on this score. The 
several dangerous crossings and corners, which entail much police 
control, may be difficult if not impossible to eliminate, but the 
same cannot be said of the various obstacles in the streets, many 
of which could be easily mitigated, if not removed altogether. 

These obstacles may be divided into two classes : 

(1) Fixed or permanent. 

(2) Movable or temporary. 

Generally speaking, the first is within the jurisdiction of the County 
and Local Authorities, and includes lavatories, refuges, centre 
standards, clock-towers, statues, etc., some of which might be 
removed with advantage, notably centre standards where apart 
from refuges ; while the second class, which is subject to police 
regulation and traffic control, includes processions, tram and bus 
termini, street markets and stalls, standing vehicles, etc. Many 
of these temporary obstructions become at times practically con- 
tinuous, and are the more difficult to deal with. At the termini 
a frequent tram or bus service entails in some cases a permanent 
obstruction. Even standing vehicles may be so numerous or so 
persistent in their occupation of the street as to be practically 
permanent, e.g. St. Paul's Churchyard, the Strand near Arundel 

55 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

Street, etc. ; and it would seem desirable in future that plans for 
the erection of new premises should not be passed unless provision 
is made for loading and unloading vans clear of the street, where 
the business in view entails extensive operations of this nature. 
Repairs to tram tracks and stopping places of trams and buses, 
particularly where associated with centre standards or refuges 
or with standing vehicles, create serious obstacles in streets of not 
more than 32 feet roadway. With wider roadways, many of these 
objects that at present create obstruction would not have the same 
detrimental effect on traffic. 

At one time preparations were being made for a census of street 
obstructions of all kinds, but the war put an end to the investiga- 
tions. This would be one of the first operations to undertake with 
a view to their removal or mitigation, and would help to show the 
importance of constructing all main roads of greater width than 
has hitherto been considered necessary. It is in this connection 
that sufficient foresight has never been exercised. 

GENERAL LINES OF IMPROVEMENT. 

Whatever standards of width may be aimed at for the various 
classes of streets and roads from the purely utilitarian point of 
view, there is another aspect which should not be overlooked. We 
have many examples in foreign cities of the way in which the main 
approaches to a city should be treated, which might well be followed 
in the case of London, with a view to investing our main roads with 
some degree of dignity and to rendering them pleasant as well as 
useful to the thousands who traverse them. In laying out new 
roads, at any rate, additional land might, as a rule, be easily acquired 
without undue expense for the purpose of ornamental planting ; 
and some control should be exercised over the frontages of these 
main approaches, to prevent their being disfigured by squalid and 
unsightly erections. With this object, prominent sites should be 
reserved for public monuments and for important buildings of 
some architectural pretensions. 

The widening of an existing road in built-up areas is in most 
cases a very expensive undertaking ; and, while the work is in 
progress, the interference with traffic and the inconvenience to 
adjoining premises is very serious. Finally, when the work is com- 
pleted, although somewhat wider than before, there is still only the 

56 





LONDON S TRAFFIC TROUBLES. 
{Two views in Brentford High Street ) 



ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC 

one road. The alternative of a relief road, where a suitable route 
can be found, has many advantages. It is less costly and admits 
of more generous treatment ; no one is seriously inconvenienced 
during the progress of the work, and in the end there are two roads 
to carry the traffic instead of one. 

Authority to prescribe building-lines on all the main radiating 
roads would be of the greatest advantage, particularly in the 
suburbs, in that it would arrest the growth of further obstructions 
and would help to lessen the difficulty and expense of widening. 
The Cambridge Road presents a very good example of the benefit 
that might accrue from the adoption of such a measure, where at 
each of the villages through which it passes the road is far too 
narrow. Opportunity could then be taken of setting back the 
building-line to the new frontage as sales occur, or as leases of the 
unimportant premises fall in, before they are replaced by a more 
elaborate class of building on the original frontage, when all hope 
of improvement would vanish. 

There is more traffic moving in a general east and west direction 
across London than there is north and south, and therefore, of the 
two main avenues that were recommended in 1905, that to provide 
for the passage of east and west traffic is the more important ; and 
in dealing with the proposed new roads, an east and west route 
will be suggested. Generally speaking, however, it is fairly hopeless 
at this stage to carry out extensive widenings and improvements 
in Central London, owing to the prohibitive cost. The best chance 
of relieving the congested central streets seems to lie in the 
improvement of some circular route whereby traffic may find its 
way from one point of the compass to another by passing round 
London without having to penetrate the central area. This 
remedy is all the easier for motor traffic, where an extra mile or two 
along a clear route saves time compared with a congested street, 
where its pace is necessarily reduced to that of the slowest-moving 
vehicle. 

PRINCIPAL MAIN ROADS AND THEIR IMPROVEMENT. 

The roads leading to Dover, Brighton, Portsmouth, Basing- 
stoke, Bath, Oxford and Coventry, the Great North Road, and 
those leading north-east to Norwich and Colchester, are of more 
particular national importance, owing to their being through 

57 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

routes from the Metropolis to the principal districts and large 
towns of Great Britain, and no opportunity should be lost of 
bringing these roads up to a proper standard. The more con- 
gested sections should be relieved by supplementary roads where 
possible and access to them improved. But Avhile this must be 
regarded as absolutely indispensable, the improvement and 
expansion of the other main roads are highly desirable in the 
interest of general development and should not be neglected. 

At Brentford it has been decided to eliminate the congestion 
by a relief road, for which an Act of Parliament was passed in 
1914, to enable a road, 80 feet wide and rather over 5 miles in 
length, to be constructed, commencing at the Chiswick High Road 
near Gunnersbury, leading north of Brentford Station, and joining 
the Bath Road beyond Hounslow. The procedure adopted in this 
case is not ideal, and the estimated cost, which is high accordingly, 
should not be accepted as any guide to cost in future projects. 
Moreover, as more than half the traffic through Hounslow at 
present passes on to the Basingstoke Road, the scheme is 
incomplete without an extension is carried to it beyond the 
Bath Road. 

At Croydon the construction of a relief road, rather over 
4 miles in length", has been agreed upon, but its width is limited 
to 60 feet, which would seem altogether inadequate for such a 
route as the Brighton Road, in view of the difficulties that have 
arisen all round London from want of foresight in the past as 
regards the capacity of main roads. This is all the more to be 
deplored as additional width could be reserved for a great part of 
its length at the present moment for little more than the cost of 
the land ; Avhereas in a short time development is pretty sure to 
block in the road, situated as it is close to a large town, when 
any subsequent improvement would be hopeless. Moreover, the 
outlets at both ends of this road, as at present arranged, will be 
decidedly inconvenient. The direction of a main road should be 
obvious, and the sharp turns involved in this case will, it is 
feared, very much interfere with the purpose for which the road 
is required. 

A scheme for the widening of Putney Bridge to 74 feet, which 
would provide for a 51-foot roadway and two footways of 11 feet 
6 inches each, has been under consideration by the London County 

58 



ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC 

Council, but under recent conditions the matter had to be dropped 
temporarily. 

The recent widening of the bridge at Kingston-on-Thames to 
55 feet and the improvement of the approaches has already relieved 
the congestion that it suffered from previously. 

SUPPLEMENTARY ROADS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. 

Two of the principal supplementary roads that have been 
approved by the Local Government Board Conferences are the 
Eastern Avenue and the Western Avenue, which, when connected 
with each other along the line of the Marylebone and Euston 
Roads, will supply the place of the main east and west avenue 
recommended in 1905. 

The line of the Eastern Avenue from the City Road passes 
across Hackney Marsh, through Leyton and Wanstead, and 
continues north of Ilford and Romford to join the Colchester 
Road at Gallows Corner, about half a mile beyond Gidea Park. 
Crossing the roads to Waltham Abbey, Norwich and Chipping 
Ongar as it does, it improves the access to all these roads, which 
is badly needed. Its chief function, however, is to relieve the 
Colchester Road, the course of which is much congested at Bow 
Bridge and Stratford High Street, and at Ilford Bridge and in 
Romford. Between Wanstead and Romford the line selected lies 
across open ground and presents no difficulty, provided the route 
can be kept open. 

The line recommended for the Western Avenue commences at 
the junction of Silchester Road with Latimer Road, and passes 
under the West London Railway to Wood Lane. From this point 
there is open ground to the south of Wormwood Scrubs, and after 
crossing the Great Western Railway near Acton Station and a small 
built-up area alongside Willesdcn Lane, the route lies across open 
country till it reaches the ridge of high ground north of Uxbridge, 
where some engineering works are called for to enable the road 
to descend to the level of the Oxford Road, which it joins about 
a mile beyond Uxbridge. Besides relieving the present Uxbridge 
Road, which carries considerable traffic, this road will open up a 
very large area of ground suitable for development, to which at 
present there is no direct access. Continued eastwards* into the 
Harrow Road, north of Paddington Station, and following the line 

59 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

of the Marylebone, Euston, Pentonville and City Roads, it would 
join the Eastern Avenue and form a great East and West Avenue, 
which would relieve the congested streets lying to the south in 
Central London. 

Commencing at the Chiswick High Road, about 600 yards 
east of Kew Bridge, the North Circular Road is recommended to 
follow Gunnersbury Lane and over Ealing Common into Hanger 
Lane. At Park Royal Station the line takes a north-easterly direc- 
tion, keeping more or less to the valley of the Brent, and after crossing 
the Harrow and Edgware Roads would join the Regent's Park Road 
near Mutton Brook. From this point existing roads can be made 
use of as far as the eastern end of Bowes Road, and again through 
Edmonton to Angel Road Station, where, after crossing the River 
Lea, the road takes a general south-easterly direction towards West 
Ham, the Docks and the free ferry, besides giving access to Ilford 
and the Colchester Road. Such a road would facilitate the inter- 
communication between all the main roads that it crosses, and 
enable traffic to pass from south-west to north-east of London 
without entering the crowded central streets. 

In South London it seems possible to provide for a circular 
route at comparatively small expense, much nearer in to the centre. 
From Clapham Common it would follow a series of existing roads, 
with short lengths of new road at intervals to straighten and 
improve the line, past Tulse Hill, Dulwich and Lordship Lane 
Stations to Catford. Continuing along Brownhill and St. Mildred's 
Roads, a length of new road across open ground to Well Hall would 
effect a very important junction with the road to Woolwich, and 
thus provide good connection between the west and south-west 
of London with Woolwich and the free ferry across the Thames 
into Essex. 

A new road to Chertsey is recommended to leave the Chiswick 
High Road by Chiswick Lane and Burlington Lane, across the 
London and South- Western Railway, and over the Thames by a 
new bridge to join the Lower Richmond Road at New Lane. 
Another new bridge across the Thames near the existing railway 
bridge, to relieve the present Richmond Bridge, would carry this 
new road to St. Margaret's, and on through the urban districts of 
Twickenham and Hanworth, past Sunbury Station and Shepperton 
Green, to Chertsey Bridge. This road would open up a very large 

60 



ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC 

area for development, and would materially shorten the distance 
to Woking, Bisley and Aldershot. 

Another important new road that should be constructed in 
the near future is the new Cambridge Road, which from the London 
County Council estate at White Hart Lane runs north over ground 
still undeveloped, lying between the Enfield Road and the existing 
Cambridge Road. Keeping to the west of Waltham Cross and 
Cheshunt, this road would join the present main road at Turnford. 
While neither the Enfield nor the Cambridge Road is even now of 
sufficient capacity throughout, population on both sides has been 
increasing steadily for some years past, and in a few years buildings 
will have spread across the intervening space between these roads, 
and the line now proposed will be blocked unless the land can be 
earmarked for this new road, which would relieve both these roads, 
and obviate the necessity for some of the more expensive widenings 
and improvements along the existing routes. 

At present the New Cross Road is the only outlet for the 
traffic proceeding from Central London to either of the roads to 
Dover, Maidstone or Tonbridge ; and this length of about 600 
yards is seriously congested at times accordingly. To relieve this 
situation, a new road should be constructed, leaving the Old Kent 
Road near Albany Road, crossing the Grand Surrey Canal and 
Peckham High Street to Peckham Rye, and on by Catford to join 
the Tonbridge Road. 

In connection with the Thames-side housing and development 
schemes now in contemplation, a new road is urgently required to 
relieve the existing Barking Road and to improve the access to the 
Southend Road. It should leave the Beckton Road near the West 
Ham boundary, cross the Northern Outfall Sewer,' the River Roding 
and the Midland Railway, to join the road to Tilbury and Southend 
about a mile beyond Barking. At the same time a new approach is 
required to the Victoria and Albert Docks and to the North Woolwich 
Road, being so arranged as to avoid Canning Town Bridge and the 
adjoining bridge over the Great Eastern Railway, and thus relieve 
the present congestion on these bridges. This road should also 
avoid the Victoria Dock Road and eliminate the Whitegates level 
crossing and the existing single-track swing-bridge over the entrance 
to the Tidal Basin, which are causes of very serious delay and 
inconvenience on the present route. 

61 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

OTHER NEW ROADS SUGGESTED. 

Many other new roads are necessary to facilitate the free 
movement of traffic and to relieve congested sections on existing 
main roads. A bye-pass road to avoid the dangerous market area 
in Kingston is not a very serious undertaking, and at the same 
time a more extended bye-pass for Kingston and Surbiton, which 
would also be a valuable development road, should leave the 
Portsmouth Road at Kingston Vale and, following the line of the 
Beverley Brook, should pass through New Maiden and Tolworth, 
and rejoin the Portsmouth Road at Littleworth Common. A bye-pass 
for Sutton is also desirable, for the area adjoining Sutton railway 
station is becoming more congested each year as the population 
increases, and the possibility of relief is gradually disappearing as 
vacant ground is taken up for building. 

A bye-pass on the Tonbridge Road would relieve a congested area 
in Bromley and leave that town to carry on its business undis- 
turbed by the through traffic, which has no occasion or desire to 
stop there en route. A relief road for Eltham would greatly 
facilitate movement along the Maidstone Road, and another for 
Sidcup would help in this direction. Many other connections are 
wanted to facilitate intercommunication between various main 
roads and to provide alternative means of access to them from 
more distant areas. Some of these may perhaps be considered to 
be of local interest rather than of general public utility, but even 
local projects of this nature, if well considered, are certain to be 
of benefit to adjoining districts, and are generally worthy of 
encouragement. 

Although not of the same prime importance as the roads 
already specified, a Zone Road to encircle London at a distance of 
some 12 to 14 miles from the centre would be a very desirable 
addition to the road system. The line proposed for this road, which 
would be over 75 miles in length, follows considerable stretches 
of existing roads — for some part suburban, but in other parts 
traversing pleasant country, particularly in the south and west — 
connected by comparatively inexpensive sections of new road 
over open ground. 

PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 

By the courtesy of the Ministry of Transport we are able to 

62 



ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC 

bring this article right up to date and to append the following notes 
on the progress of the Greater London Arterial Road Programme, 
all of which schemes, it should be noted, are shown on The London 
Society's map. 

The urgent need of providing employment for ex-Service men 
this past winter brought to the fore the question of road works, 
and the Government accordingly decided to promote, through the 
Ministry of Transport, the construction of arterial roads by offering 
to share the cost with the County Councils and other Local 
Authorities concerned. To expedite the work the Unemployment 
(Relief Works) Act was passed, enabling land to be acquired, where 
urgently needed for road-making, at seven days' notice. 

The Government's proposals for Greater London have been 
accepted by the Counties of Essex, London and Middlesex for a 
certain number of arterial roads, of which the following particulars 
may be quoted : 

(1) In the South-East we have the Eltham Bye-pass, nearly 

three miles long, enabling London-Maidstone traffic to 
avoid the congestion and abrupt angles of Eltham High 
Street. A continuation northwards of the Bye-pass 
(Kidbrooke Park Extension) affords a useful connection 
towards Greenwich and Woolwich. 

(2) The Shooters Hill Bye-pass, four miles long, branching off 

from the Dover road at Blackheath to avoid the steep 
250-foot climb over Shooters Hill, and proceeding on 
comparatively easy gradients to rejoin the Dover road 
at Welling. 

(3) The South Circular Road through Woolwich, forming part 

of an invaluable project for enabling traffic to skirt the 
Metropolis instead of needlessly penetrating the congested 
heart of London. 

(4) The North Circular Road through Willesden, Hendon, 

Southgate, Edmonton, Walthamstow and Leyton, etc., 
performing for the North side of London the same service 
as the South Circular Road for the other half of the 
Metropolis. 

(5) The Western Avenue through Hammersmith and Acton, to 

be continued some day, it may be hoped, through Ealing 
and Greenford to join the Oxford Road just beyond 

03 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

Uxbridge. Town-planning resolutions passed by the Local 
Authorities concerned will, at any rate, keep the line of 
route clear. 

(6) The Eastern Avenue across the Lea Marshes in Hackney 

and Leyton, providing a much-needed crossing-place over 
the Lea Valley between the Bow Road and the Lea Bridge 
Road. 

(7) The New Cambridge Road through Tottenham, Edmonton 

and Enfield, in process of construction by the Middlesex 
County Council. No definite provision has, however, yet 
been made for the extension northwards through Hert- 
fordshire to rejoin the old Cambridge Road at Cheshunt. 

In addition to these works already in hand, it may be mentioned 
that negotiations are far advanced for the construction of the eight- 
mile section of the Eastern Avenue extending from the Red Bridge 
over the River Roding through Ilford and Romford to the junction 
with the London-Colchester Road at a point east of Romford. 

Another scheme, the execution of which is very near at hand, 
is the Barking Bye-pass connecting Canning Town with the London- 
Tilbury Road, thus affording the means for traffic to escape con- 
gestion, abrupt corners and level crossings which render Barking a 
bugbear to motorists. 

Two schemes should also be mentioned which were already 
in progress before the unemployment crisis arose last winter, viz. 
the Croydon Bye-pass, which forms a conspicuous feature in the 
view from the London-Brighton Railway near Purley, and the 
Brentford Bye-pass, which has been in the hands of the contractors 
for many months past. It seems not unlikely that arrangements 
will be made very shortly for an extension of the Brentford Bye- 
pass south-westwards to connect the Bath Road with the Basing- 
stoke Road. 

TOWN PLANNING SCHEMES. 

By co-operation between local authorities, landowners and 
others concerned, the various Town Planning Schemes under con- 
sideration all round London afford an opportunity of helping the 
construction and improvement of many of these roads which may 
never recur, and of which full advantage should be taken at once. 

64 




i.\ cms wick. 




THE HALL, STAPLE INN. 
(Two of London's quiet corners.) 



ROADS, STREETS AND TRAFFIC 

This is of the greatest importance, if the Road Scheme, which has 
been approved after very careful consideration by all the local 
authorities, is ever to be carried out. Encircling London so com- 
pletely as they do, these town planning and housing schemes may 
block every possible outlet for any new road unless they conform 
to the general road plan. Moreover, housing schemes would fail 
altogether in their object if direct access by road is not available 
to enable inhabitants to reach their work. On the other hand, 
under careful guidance, slums in the interior may be swept away 
and the areas thus cleared devoted to more important commercial 
and other purposes, while the inhabitants are moved to healthier 
quarters on the outskirts, where fresh air and pleasant surroundings 
may do so much for the welfare of succeeding generations. 

PARKS AND OPEN SPACES. 

In considering the important question of providing clear routes 
of adequate capacity for the traffic of London, and in selecting the 
lines for new streets and so forth, we should not overlook the 
desirability of saving any of the old landmarks which have not 
already disappeared under the ruthless guise of improvement, and 
of leaving undisturbed the quiet nooks and corners, of which there 
are many, even in Central London, known perhaps only to com- 
paratively few, where it is still possible to wander apart from the 
surrounding noise and bustle of the Metropolis. 

While, too, it is desirable to provide easy access to them, the 
large parks themselves and the open spaces that go to form the 
playgrounds of London should not only remain untouched as far 
as possible, but further large areas should be earmarked as open 
spaces in advance of development. In the north-west it is proposed 
that ground should be reserved for a large public park of over 
2,000 acres at Stanmore, to include the Aldenham Reservoir and 
its beautiful surroundings. In the north-east another large area of 
Hainault Forest might be reserved for the benefit more especially 
of the vast population that is steadily growing up to the south of 
it. Although the south-west is already fairly well provided for 
with Wimbledon Common and the parks at Kew, Richmond and 
Hampton, a considerable woodland area might with advantage be 
reserved at Stoke d'Abernon, which, Avith Esher, Ashstead and 
Epsom Commons, would make up a further large open space in the 

65 E 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

far south-west. In the south-east also, Joyden's Wood is proposed 
as a public park for Bexley and Crayford, and another large area 
immediately south-east of Croydon is suggested as a Croham 
Hurst and Addington public park. 

Waterside reservations along the many streams would not 
only preserve various beauty spots, but would also secure for the 
public very large additional areas of open space, which in most 
cases are not at all suitable for the erection of dwellings. Such 
areas would otherwise only be utilized as private gardens, or possibly 
be dealt with as many streams have been already, by being run 
underground in culverts. Where a main road lies alongside one 
of such waterside reservations, as in the case of the Brent, a 
great opportunity is presented of making good use of such features. 



LONDON 
RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

H. J. LEANING, F.S.I. 



CHAPTER IV 

LONDON RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

URGENCY OF PROBLEM. 

Among the many vital subjects demanding attention to-day for 
the purpose of economizing the national resources and increasing 
the trading possibilities of the country, none would yield such 
immediate and so great results as that of welding our London 
railway systems into one consistent whole. 

The frequent charges of inefficiency made against the present 
arrangements do not reflect so much upon the management as upon 
the necessity for better intercommunication between the various 
districts, and also for more rapid services in the central area. 

CHANGED CONDITIONS. 

The conditions have so much altered since the lines were 
constructed that the old arrangements are no longer suitable. 
The distribution of the population has been shown by the last 
census to be changing rapidly, the population of the Outer Ring 
having nearly doubled itself in twenty years from 1891 to 1911. 
The same period has witnessed the electrification of the tramways 
and the advent of motor omnibuses. The combined effect of these 
factors has been to decrease the short suburban traffic on the railways 
and to increase the long suburban traffic. 

Simultaneously we find a vast increase in the number of 
passengers carried by the local railways, viz. 180,026,117 in 1891 
and 436,498,785 in 1911, an increase of 142 per cent. The latter 
figure is due to the opening of the tube railways, beginning with 
the City and South London line in 1890 and followed by the 
Waterloo and City in 1899, Central London in 1900, Great Northern 
and City in 1904, Bakerloo in 1906 and Piccadilly in 1907. 

69 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

The heavy traffic on the tubes might have been expected to 
cause a heavy diminution of the traffic on the roads, but the only 
indication of this to be seen is in 1909, when the number of 
omnibus passengers decreased from 340,000,000 to 311,000,000, 
about 8J per cent. All the indications are to the effect that the 
greater travelling facilities there are provided the greater are the 
number of journeys per head of population. 

As evidence of this we find that whereas according to the 
last census returns the population increased between 1891 and 1911 
by 29 per cent., the number of railway passengers on local lines 
increased by 142 per cent. 

In the same period, however, the number of road passengers 
by tram and bus increased by 242 per cent. 

GENERAL PLAN LONG OVERDUE. 

From these figures it can be seen that both roads and railways 
are becoming taxed to their utmost capacity and that it is 
necessary to relieve both of them by some special measures as soon 
as possible. 

They cannot be dealt with separately, as the railway plan 
undoubtedly governs the road plan. Now, it has been insisted by 
almost every Parliamentary Committee since 1863 that one general 
comprehensive plan for the railways of London has become a 
paramount necessity. 

No such scheme, however, has been prepared, although in 1905, 
after the Traffic Commission Report, Sir Herbert Jekyll contem- 
plated the preparation of one and got a staff together for that 
purpose, but the political situation did not favour the project 
and it collapsed. The individual railway companies could hardly 
be expected to do such a thing themselves, as if they did they 
would be liable to attack by every company whose interests were 
unfavourably affected. 

CAUSES OF FAILURE OF PRESENT SYSTEM. 

The Report of the Traffic Commission sums up the situation 
thus : 

The defects of the system as it exists are very largely due to the manner in which 
the connecting lines have been laid out and to the deficiency of adequate means of 
terminal distribution caused by the exclusion of railways from the central area. Some 

70 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

of the defects are the outcome of the disadvantages of separate ownership, which must 
always be accepted if it is desired to secure the correlative advantages of competition. 

Each connection has been made and each line laid out in the individual interests of 
the competing companies, without much regard to the interests and needs of the railway 
system of London taken as a whole. 

COMPETITION NO LONGER CONSISTENT WITH EFFICIENCY. 

Since then the Departmental Committee of 1911 has gone 
further, and finds that both the railways and the public would 
gain by " a properly regulated extension of co-operation rather 
than by a revival of competition." It is now realized that the 
competition which existed during the age of construction is not 
suitable to the age of operation. In the latter it has been checked 
largely by amalgamation and rendered nugatory by the Railway 
Rates Act, 1894. 

It has therefore defeated itself, and the considered opinion 
of those most competent to judge is to the effect that central 
control is the only escape from the present system and that the 
best form of it would be that of a permanent Board of Control 
independent of Parliament. 

There is no doubt that to secure continuity of policy and 
management there must be permanent officials of high executive 
ability. Such men must be independent of politics and not liable 
to dismissal on changes of Government. 

UNITY OF OWNERSHIP DESIRABLE. 

Even with such control, however, the unity of ownership of 
all means of communication seems desirable, because it would enable 
the Government to develop and improve those means of transit 
most required and to abandon those which are obsolete or unre- 
munerative. This is absolutely necessary for reasons of economy 
and efficiency. Unity of management is not so indispensable. 
After a careful regrouping of our systems it would be quite feasible 
for the present companies to operate the lines subject to the 
central control of a permanent State Department. This is politics, 
but it is also political economy, for the alternative course of 
restoring the lines to their former owners would involve many years 
of arbitration and many millions in compensation. 

THE SOCIETY'S SCHEME. 

The London Society, by reason of its freedom from political 

71 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

ties or vested interests, is in my opinion specially qualified to under- 
take the preparation of a scheme, more especially because it is 
able to take a wide survey and to treat the problem as a whole 
without incurring any charges of partiality or motive. We have 
therefore, while fully conscious of our want of special knowledge 
of the subject, studied the problem in all its bearings from the 
best available sources of information. We have taken the best 
expert advice, and have concentrated our minds upon the attainment 
of a unified system of lines out of the existing chaotic arrangement. 
One of the recommendations of the Select Committee of 1920 
on London Traffic was the preparation of a comprehensive plan 
showing the possible future developments of all the various means 
of locomotion in London. The abandonment of these recommen- 
dations and the proposed disbandment of the Ministry of Transport 
leaves this work unaccomplished. It is hoped, however, that the 
new authority which must be established will carry out a recom- 
mendation so obviously desirable. 

OBJECTS KEPT IN VIEW. 

We have in our scheme disregarded all questions of owner- 
ship, and have not hesitated to alter routes or workings wherever 
the interests of the whole seemed to demand it, the main object 
being to secure a maximum of convenience at a minimum initial 
cost. When this has been achieved, we are confident that the result 
in working will show very substantial savings in the annual cost 
of operation, upkeep, etc., and also greatly increased surpluses in 
the receipts, owing to the immense improvement in facilities for 
travelling. 

GREAT ECONOMIES MADE POSSIBLE. 

As evidence of the savings we may mention : 

1. The abolition of the many wasteful double approaches to 
the Central Area now working, such as from Bromley, 
Epsom, Richmond, etc. 

These are now maintained as feeders to rival systems and are 
not necessary for public convenience. 

72 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

2. The avoidance of vast outlays in widening main line 
approaches to London and in extending termini which 
would soon become necessary if the present system were 
adhered to. 

Many other economies, such as Clearing House charges, fuller 
use of rolling stock, cost of advertising, rates, etc., could be 
effected by unification and co-operation. 

THE FUNCTION OF TUBES. 

It is now fourteen years since the last tube was constructed, 
and many argue that owing to the heavy cost and low dividends 
no more will be made. As a means of connecting the outlying 
systems of railways with each other through the central area, 
however, they are a vital necessity. 

Hitherto they have not been so used, but in our opinion 
that is their chief function, as only by their use can such connections 
be made. 

An essential feature of our proposals is the elimination of 
all central termini for suburban trains. This is a principle 
almost generally accepted, as it is the surest method for avoiding 
congestion. It involves necessarily through connections, and these 
must be provided whether they pay or not. 

There are certain factors about tube construction in London 
which make it more expensive than it need be. Owing to the 
prohibition of the Crown Lands Authorities, no tubes may be con- 
structed under parks. The result is that lines have to wind round 
them and direct access is not always possible. 

This difficulty ought to be removed, as the damage done to 
the parks is merely technical. 

Also the stations, which in Paris and New York are under the 
street, in London involve expensive site purchases and expensive 
buildings. This in some cases is due to narrowness of streets, but 
not in all cases, and proper co-operation between the authorities 
would permit the railway station to be under the street or under 
the squares or open spaces. 

RECOUPMENT. 

Incidentally, we have indicated several new districts around 

73 






LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

London which possess great advantages from their natural situa- 
tion, but which, owing to insufficient means of access, are 
undeveloped. 

These include such places as Sydenham in the south and 
Finchley and Kingsbury in the north, together with other undis- 
covered tracts in the west. It is suggested that the acquisition 
of large areas of land in these localities by the Transport Authority 
would secure for it the profits resulting from their own development, 
and this would provide a large part of the initial cost. 

INCREASED RECEIPTS. 

When we come to consider annual charges, we find that increased 
facilities always increase traffic. For instance, general electrifica- 
tion not only tends to increase the population of the places so served 
(compare Wimbledon, from 20,000 in 1889 to 58,000 in 1910 = 190 
per cent., with Sutton, from 14,000 in 1891 to 20,500 in 1910 
— 26| per cent.), but also in even greater proportion it increases 
the use of the railway, the number of passengers from Wimbledon 
having increased during the period cited by 394 per cent., whereas 
those from Sutton only increased by 93 per cent. (Board of Trade 
Report, 1910). 

ALTERNATIVE EXPENDITURE ON STREETS. 

But in addition to these advantages, and far exceeding them, 
there is a most important factor which is not usually fully con- 
sidered. If the tubes now in existence had not been provided, what 
would have been the sum required to be spent from public funds 
in road and street widenings and repairs ? Undoubtedly a sum 
very much exceeding that now proposed to be spent on arterial 
roads. All this, and far more for future needs, should stand to 
the credit of any such scheme as that now described. 

Let us suppose that the Central London Railway had not 
been constructed. What would have been the effect upon Oxford 
Street and the route generally ? 

This line carries an average of 40,000,000 passengers annually. 
This traffic is distributed unequally through the day, but during 
busy hours is at the rate of 28 trains each way per hour 
(Board of Trade Report, 1910). Assuming each train to carry an 

74 



( 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

average of two hundred passengers, we get 11,200 passengers, 
equivalent to 330 buses per hour. 

On the length between Tottenham Court Road and the Bank 
we find that before the line was made in 1895 there ran 306 buses 
both ways per hour. After the line had been open some years we 
find the number stationary (308 in 1908), but it fell to 206 in 1910. 
Without the line, the number would have been 536 per hour. Yet 
we see that the delays at crossings even in 1905 varied from 
nearly three hours at Princes' Street to six hours five minutes 
at Cornhill in a day of twelve hours. With the number of buses 
nearly doubled, the block might have been insurmountable. 

DISLOCATION DURING ALTERATION. 

In making the proposed changes there would necessarily be 
considerable dislocation of traffic. We propose at a later date, 
and when the scheme here presented has stood the test of criticism, 
to offer some suggestions as to the stages by which it would be 
carried out with the minimum of inconvenience. 

USE OF EXISTING LINES. 

Since the construction of the existing lines, many of them 
have been superseded. In some cases they can by new connections 
become again vital parts of the system. Others cannot be profit- 
ably included, but it is doubtful whether it would be sound policy 
to destroy them, except for Town Planning reasons where they 
interfere with the development of a district, as they can still be 
used for coal and goods distribution or as alternative routes. 

ELECTRIFICATION. 

Electrical operation of railways seems to be a part of the 
latest transport programme, but it must be remembered that it 
is a very different problem when applied to main lines when com- 
pared with its application to suburban lines, owing to the varied 
services required on the former. 

Now, although the experts tell us that during the rush hours 
of the day it is more expensive to carry the same number of 
passengers by electricity than by steam, nevertheless, as electricity 
gives a greater frequency of trains, and as the central systems must 

75 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

always be directly connected with tubes, there is no alternative, 
and possibly national generating stations may, by reducing the 
cost, overcome this objection. 

No doubt the suburban services will be fully electrified before 
the main lines are dealt with. 

A difficulty occurs with regard to this which is due to the 
fact that the main line services in the summer are frequently 
compelled to run carriages normally used for suburban trains for 
their extra seaside traffic and race specials, chiefly because of their 
greater seating capacity. 

The electrification of suburban lines only might demand the 
provision of a good deal of spare stock to meet this demand. 

This seasonal traffic usually is, however, a cause of serious 
dislocation of both main line and suburban traffic, and we think 
there is a good deal to be said for dealing with it quite separately. 
We shall refer to this later. 

We have in our survey divided the subject into sections, viz. 
Trunk Lines, Suburban Lines, Goods Traffic, Coal Traffic, and 
Parcels Traffic. 

I. TRUNK LINES 

One of the principal causes of the present confusion at the 

termini is undoubtedly the inclusion of suburban traffic with the 

long-distance traffic. It is proposed that this should be separated, 

and that the termini should be relieved of it as much as possible. 

This would enable us — 

1. To reduce the number of main termini. 

2. To avoid the further enlargements and widening of approaches 

which would be required under present arrangements. 

The public interest does not call for as many termini as now 
exist. In our opinion, nine of the present fifteen stations might 
be removed or altered in their use without any loss to public 
convenience. 

St. Pancras, Cannon Street, Charing Cross and Holborn 
Viaduct might be removed altogether, and Marylebone, St. Paul's, 
Fenchurch Street and London Bridge, Victoria and King's Cross 
might profitably be converted to either suburban or goods stations. 

76 




S aj 



£ a* 



P5 S3 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

On the south side, Waterloo Station, which is capable of great 
extension if necessary, and which is situated at the end of the 
proposed new road bridge at Charing Cross leading to the principal 
hotels and public resorts of London, would be quite capable of 
receiving all the long-distance trains from the Southern Counties 
and also the Continental trains. This would make the proposed 
new Memorial Road Bridge at Charing Cross the main Continental 
approach to London. 

Such drastic proposals need, of course, powerful justification 
before one could expect them to be considered. They would only 
be effected gradually, and each would be treated on its merits. Let 
us consider each proposed surrender separately. 

CANNON STREET. 

The case for the removal of this station is very strong. 

In the first place, the improved London Bridge Station would 
be sufficient to cope with every requirement, and secondly, when 
the new connection proposed at Deptford for taking all passengers 
on these lines who wish to reach City or central stations via East 
London Railway to Metropolitan stations is completed, the necessity 
for Cannon Street disappears. The number of trains running daily 
into this station in 1913 was 6 long-distance and 129 suburban. 
The corresponding figures for Fenchurch Street were 11 and 239 
respectively, or approximately double. 

The station was closed for two years between 11 and 4.30 daily, 
and all day on Sundays, and the maintenance of such an expensive 
station, with its wide-span roof and the costly bridge repairs, and 
the well-known difficulty of working it, seem to us conclusive 
arguments in favour of its abolition. 

FENCHURCH STREET. 

This station is an obsolete structure, and there is no reason 
why its long-distance passengers should not go into Liverpool 
Street. There is a scheme which has strong support in Stepney 
for the removal of the viaduct from Stepney to Fenchurch Street 
and the construction of an underground line connected to the 
Metropolitan at Mark Lane. This could not, of course, be done 
unless the Metropolitan were enlarged to carry the extra traffic. 

77 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

The scheme accords fully with the general principle advocated later 
for dealing with suburban traffic. 

KING'S CROSS AND ST. PANCRAS. 

The Midland and North- Western and Great Northern traffic 
under new ''conditions could be concentrated at Euston by making 
short connections as shown on the plan. King's Cross could then 
be treated as a local station and St. Pancras could cease to be 
more than a hotel. 

The present bottleneck on the Midland prevents any further 
expansion, and King's Cross, because of its tunnels, is in the same 
position. 

HOLBORN. 

Holborn Viaduct and St. Paul's, when transformed into under- 
ground stations on the new through line to Farringdon Street, would 
become local stations. 

MARYLEBONE. 

In December 1913 the number of trains running into Mary- 
lebone station daily was 54 suburban and 16 long-distance. 
Paddington and Bishop's Road together had 62 and 80 
respectively. 

Many of the latter are Great Central trains, and if the whole 
of the Great Central trains ran into Paddington, the total load 
would be 212 trains daily, or rather less than half the number 
dealt with at Victoria. 

The proximity of the two stations to one another, their 
present joint use, the greater exchange facilities at Paddington 
and the congestion at Bishop's Road goods station, all combine 
to show that there is a strong case for the removal of the latter 
to Marylebone and for transferring the passenger traffic from 
Marylebone to an enlarged Paddington. 

CHARING CROSS. 

The views of the Society as to this station and its bridge 
are sufficiently well known to make it unnecessary to recapitulate 
all the arguments for its removal. It is inadequate to-day, and 

78 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

could not be extended to make it adequate for future needs, so 
that, apart from aesthetic reasons, it could not always remain. 

The question as to its removal to the south side is involved 
with that of the general rearrangement of the southern lines and 
that of the main Continental approach. 

These changes, which could only be effected gradually, would, 
when completed, effect an enormous annual saving in maintenance 
and staffing, and would by greater concentration add to the 
convenience of the services and considerably relieve the streets 
around the abandoned stations. 

II. SUBURBAN LINES. 

The suburban services divide themselves into short services 
up to 10 miles out and long services beyond that distance. 

The short services would be operated electrically, with stops 
at all stations, and these are the services which it is proposed to 
connect to the existing central system. 

The long services are mostly slow until they reach the 10-mile 
radius, when they become express. These would have to be main- 
tained, as during rush hours they are necessary to cope with the 
peak-load traffic. This is just the kind of traffic which is more 
economically run with steam, and it is proposed that these should 
for some time continue to run into the main termini. 

As an illustration of this mixed traffic, the Great Northern 
suburban traffic is so divided, part running into King's Cross and 
part running, by way of the connection at King's Cross, to the 
Metropolitan to Moorgate Street. There is a steady through connec- 
tion all day from the suburbs to Moorgate Street, but the rush 
hour traffic is largely dealt with by trains terminating at King's 
Cross. The 1913 Report of the London Traffic Branch {Board of 
Trade) gives the following numbers of trains arriving in London 
up to 10.30 a.m. : King's Cross 44 and Moorgate Street 33. It is 
not thought that even when electrified the whole of the rush hour 
traffic could be entirely dealt with at Moorgate Street. King's 
Cross takes the non-stop traffic and Moorgate Street the distributed 
service, and the result is satisfactory. 

We propose to apply this principle to all the other lines, 
except that, instead of stopping at Moorgate Street, the trains would 
continue through to some place just the other side of London, 

79 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

the northern systems interlocking with the south, the east with 
the west, and vice versa. 

If this method be not adopted, we shall in the near future have 
to provide further widenings and further enlargements of termini. 

If it be adopted, the trains which now run back nearly empty 
would go on distributing, and would be likely to pick up more 
passengers from the central stations for the suburban return journey, 
and the termini, being relieved of the purely local trains, could be 
reduced in use and at some future time amalgamated in the 
manner proposed. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE CHANGE. 

The proposal here made has been gradually evolving itself 
ever since the connections on the G.N.R. and Midland were made 
with the Metropolitan. 

It was followed long after by the tubes from Finsbury Park to 
City and West End, and then by the line from Watford connecting 
with the Bakerloo. We have merely pursued this development to 
its logical conclusion. 

By the methods described we hope to secure : (1) electric 
communication between every part of London and every other 
part ; (2) better and more regular suburban services. 

The conditions necessary to secure these results are : 

1. The abolition of central termini for suburban traffic. 

2. The elimination of passengers' luggage. 

In all cases where electric traction has been adopted it has fully 
justified itself, and uniformity can only be obtained by its general 
adoption. 

Rapid services cannot be run when luggage is permitted. 
Special arrangements for dealing with it are proposed later. 

Central suburban termini create unnecessary congestion, and 
they involve changes which cannot of course be avoided altogether 
at transfer stations, but they can be reduced to a minimum by 
through services. Very few passengers arrive at present termini 
who do not continue their journey to some other point. 

The accompanying plan shows the manner in which it is 
suggested that the traffic from the main lines should be diverted 
to the local lines, woven into the central system. 

80 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

In this way not only are those lines relieved, but, by acting 
as feeders to the local lines, they would secure to them a sufficient 
volume of traffic to justify the expense of their construction. 

The present system of tubes has been made in a haphazard 
way and is incomplete and unrelated in its parts, and although 
now united, the connections are makeshifts and the transfer stations 
inadequate. 

The directions of the lines shown on the plan have been 
settled after very careful consideration, using existing lines wher- 
ever possible, and everywhere aiming at radial directions. 

Such lines as the North London to Richmond and other 
similar indirect services become redundant as soon as the new lines 
are made. 

Certain alterations in direction of existing lines are therefore 
proposed. These are : 

1. The separation of the two original lines, Hammersmith to 

Holborn and Finsbury Park to Holborn (now merged 
into the Piccadilly line). The former is shown to be 
continued in a north-easterly direction to Clapton, through 
a district very badly served at present, and the latter 
is continued via Aldwych under the river to Waterloo 
and on to Tulse Hill and Croydon. The former is 
extended south-west to Hampton Court. 

2. The line from Euston to Clapham Common, which it is 

now proposed to enlarge from 8 feet 6 inches to 11 feet 
diameter, is cut in two, and that part of it which runs 
from Euston to Old Street is continued to join the 
Hampstead and Golder's Green line, giving access to the 
City from those districts. The part from Old Street to 
Clapham is continued to Purley and northwards con- 
nected to the Great Northern and City line ; instead of 
the proposed enlargement of the old tube all the way, 
it is suggested that the enlarging should stop at the 
Bank and a new line be made, which would serve as an 
express line from the City to Clapham and Purley, the 
old line acting as the slow one from the City to Clapham. 

3. A new line is shown from Baker Street to Victoria and 

continued under the river to Croydon. 

81 F 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

4. The Waterloo and City line is extended in both directions, 
one way under present main South-Western line as far 
as Clapham Junction, to collect the local services, and 
the other way through the City. 

INNER CIRCLE. 

The treatment of the Metropolitan District lines is a matter 
requiring much deliberation. They have developed into the kind 
of rapid transit lines such as we are now aiming at, but by the 
number of their branches the pressure put upon the central lengths 
of line from South Kensington to Mansion House and Farringdon 
Street to Praed Street is so great as to make it urgently necessary 
that their capacity should be increased. 

These lines, constructed in 1866 through the heart of London, 
could not be so constructed to-day, on grounds of cost, but they are 
a most valuable asset in dealing with Central London traffic, and 
should in our opinion be used to their utmost capacity. 

Now, it is proposed to connect some of the suburban lines at 
Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, Victoria and King's Cross 
with these lines in order to carry these lines through London 
without termini. 

EXPRESS LINES. 

To do this it would be imperative that the capacity of these 
lines should be increased. At the first and last of these stations 
the connection exists, and at the other two it could easily be made 
by sinking some of the present platforms of the termini. 

The new traffic would, however, interfere seriously with the 
existing traffic, and especially with the Inner Circle, and it is 
therefore proposed that a new line should be made all round the 
Inner Circle under the present lines, which would take the new 
traffic and act as express lines for the present traffic where necessary. 
The descent to the lower lines would be by flying junctions at 
points where there is room to make them, and some of the stations 
would have to be of two stories. 

Other express lines proposed are : 

1. Finchley Road, via Baker Street, along new line to Piccadilly 
Circus ; 

82 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

2. Camden Town to Waterloo ; 

3. Queen's Road to Bank ; 

4. Bank to Clapham Common, 

and others as circumstances may dictate. 

For short distances and the relief of highly congested points 
the Americans are adopting the moving platform graded in four 
speeds from three to twelve miles an hour. These are very efficient, 
but take a great width for double track, and I venture to think 
that the ingenious method of traction known as the Adkins-Lewis 
system is cheaper and more fool-proof and efficient. It might well 
be used as an auxiliary to the present Inner Circle or on some new 
routes, such as that proposed from Victoria to Marble Arch or 
Piccadilly to City. 

INCREASED COST OF NEW CONSTRUCTION. 

Owing to the great increase in cost of construction it will be 
many years before new tubes to the extent shown on the plan 
can be constructed ; as an alternative, the existing suburban lines 
will have to be electrified and as far as possible linked up with 
the general system. 

ALTERED WORKING HOURS. 

It is possible that changes in the business habits of the people, 
such as working in two shifts (an expedient adopted last year in 
several City offices to meet the shortage of accommodation in offices), 
would have the effect of postponing many of the proposals here made. 

III. GOODS TRAFFIC 
DEFECTS. 

The goods problem is not less puzzling than that of passengers. 
The Traffic Commission Report avoided it altogether, on the 
ground that the streets were not unduly used for goods distribution ; 
but even supposing this were so, no one would contend that the 
present services were satisfactory. The delays are notorious, the 
cost of freight (due to the complicated systems) is far too high, 
and there is universal discontent. 

As soon as the effects of the dock extension are felt the 
congestion and delays will increase, and it will become imperative 

83 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

that some measures shall be taken to satisfy the growing needs of 
the trading community. 

REMEDIES PROPOSED. 

During the past ten years the railway community has been 
bombarded with proposals for a Central Goods Clearing House 
(which it is claimed would solve the whole difficulty), and for 
a proposed initial cost of £14,000,000 would save £40,000,000 
annually. An essential feature is the automatic sorting of 
the goods. Working models of this machinery have been 
prepared, and it is generally admitted that in itself, and for 
certain restricted purposes, it should have decided labour-saving 
effect upon the new arrangements. For this reason the Select 
Committee on Transport recently authorized the promoters to 
raise £100,000 for the purpose of erecting an installation of the 
machinery for actual use. So much for the machinery. In our 
opinion, had it been put forward on its merits it would probably 
have been adopted for sectional distribution long ago, but unfortu- 
nately its use was always advocated in connection with a Central 
Clearing House scheme in Clerkenwell, and that is a proposition 
which does not commend itself either to the railway companies or 
the Board of Trade or the traders. It is impossible to discuss it 
fully here. It has received most ample consideration in every 
quarter, and apart from the many serious objections on other 
grounds, expert opinion generally is against centralization either 
for goods or passengers. The whole tendency is in the opposite 
direction. Since the formation of the great goods station at 
Camden Town, for instance, much of the traffic which used to go 
there now goes through to Poplar, Blackwall and the Docks, or 
direct to the many local goods stations in all parts of London. 

Similarly, the traffic formerly distributed from Bishop's Road 
and Old Oak Stations on G.W.R. now goes direct to Lambeth. 

In order to prevent congestion of trucks in the central area, 
all trucks not fully loaded or specially consigned to a central 
station are arrested at one of the main sorting sidings and thence, 
wherever possible, are sent round instead of through London. 

If this were not done the central goods stations and sidings 
would have to be greatly enlarged and the approaches to them 
widened. Fifty years hence the accumulation thus caused would 

84 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

become unworkable, and the streets, already overcrowded, would be 
worked up to the limits of their capacity. At the same time, while 
the distribution is becoming more direct, there is a pronounced 
tendency for factories for various reasons to move into the outer 
area. Once begun, this is likely to continue, and it is a further 
argument against centralization. 

While therefore retaining the present arrangements, we venture 
to make certain suggestions for improvements which, in our opinion, 
would expedite and cheapen the working of the goods traffic of 
London, and would at the same time provide for the inevitable 
increase for many years to come. 

Goods traffic is of many kinds, the principal varieties being — 

Minerals and coal. 

Bulk merchandise. 

Miscellaneous goods — parcels. 

Perishable articles — fish, fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. 

With regard to coal, the main difficulty is fluctuating demand. 
There is also that of orders for particular varieties too small to fill 
a truck. A little time after a sudden change of weather to cold, 
the sidings become empty and the demand exceeds the supply. 
This indicates the necessity for stores to meet the emergency 
demands. While providing these, it would be well if the labour 
in handling could be reduced by constructing these stores under- 
neath sidings well above the roadway, so that on opening the sides 
of trucks the coal might fall down, slide into the stores below, whence 
it could be taken in a similar manner, when required, to the delivery 
lorry, before or after sacking, according to the facilities for delivery 
at the destination. 

It might be argued that such methods would produce much 
coaldust, owing to the increased attrition involved by this process. 
Even if this could not be overcome by well-designed shoots, there 
is good use for the dust (by-products, fuel blocks, etc.), and the 
loss in value should be more than covered by the saving in labour. 

London's coal (about 16,000,000 tons a year) comes in half 
by sea and half by rail. Stores have therefore been placed by the 
riverside at Beckton, Woolwich, Deptford, Wandsworth, Lots Road, 
and Brentford to receive the seaborne coal. 

85 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

The others are placed near the present distributing centres 
on the main lines of railway. 

Generally, on the question of heavy goods traffic we consider 
that the essentials to an efficient service are : 

1. Adequate sorting sidings in the right places, with as many 

labour-saving devices as possible. This includes plenty 
of " humps " (for shunting by gravitation) and well 
planned lines. 

In our opinion, all the main lines are well provided in this 
respect, except the L.S.W.R., the G.W.R., and the Cambridge line 
of G.E.R. 

In the first instance, Nine Elms, which combines sidings and 
goods station, is too near the terminus and the wrong side of 
Clapham Junction, and is a dead-end and therefore involves more 
shunting. Our suggestion is for new main sidings at Raynes Park 
and also at Hounslow, leaving Nine Elms as a goods station only. 

For Great Western use, Old Oak sidings are also a dead-end 
and awkwardly situated, and we suggest new sidings at Greenford, 
retaining Old Oak as goods station. 

The great increase in Lea Valley goods traffic and the closeness 
of Temple Mills to the central area render a new siding on this line 
necessary, and we have indicated one at Brimsdown. 

Another new siding proposed is at Harrow, on vacant land 
at the junction of L.N.W. and G.C.R., to relieve Camden Town 
(already overlarge for its present use and closely built up to), 
and also to relieve Neasden, which is too good a position residentially 
for a vast siding, such as it would become in due course if present 
arrangements continue. 

2. Reduction of the number of goods termini. We have already 

referred to the proposal to close Bishop's Road goods 
and substitute Marylebone as the main western goods 
terminus. 

In the east we should suggest closing Broad Street goods, 
which is already too small and too valuable in position 
to be so retained. In its stead we suggest an enlarged 
Bishopsgate. 

In the north we have to-daj' St. Pancras, Somers Town, 
86 




- I? 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

York Road, Chalk Farm, all of which deal with heavy- 
volumes of traffic. It would be a very difficult and 
expensive work to merge all these into one, but we certainly 
think it the right thing to aim at. The removal of the 
gasometers behind King's Cross Station (now only used 
for storage purposes) would facilitate this, and if it could 
be ultimately contrived, as we believe, the fusion would 
certainly greatly decrease the cost of administration. 
In the south-west we now have Lambeth (G.W.), Stewart's 
Lane (L.B.S.C), and Nine Elms (L.S.W.) all close together. 
The amalgamation of these into one new station, either 
at Lambeth (where there is ample room for extension over 
the old reservoirs) or at Nine Elms, would, we consider, 
be ultimately justifiable. In the south-east, Willow Walk 
(L.B.S.C.) and Bricklayers' Arms (S.E.R.) might properly 
be amalgamated. The Dock stations would have to be 
retained and improved as the new circumstances require. 

3. Easy intercommunication by rail between the various main 

sorting sidings. Under a unified ownership this should 
not prove a difficult matter. The plan shows that this 
can largely be done with existing lines, with the exception 
of a connection under the Thames east of Woolwich and 
flying connections at the crossings of various main lines. 

4. An adequate and efficient through connection between north 

and south. 
The present connections are : 

via East London Railway at Shadwell. 

via L.C. & D. at Blackfriars. 

via West London Railway at Barnes. 

The second, which has the best connections, is physically 
so inferior owing to the gradient at Snow Hill, which 
limits a train to twenty-three trucks against a normal 
sixty-three, that it hardly counts. 

The first is of two tracks through the Thames Tunnel and 
largely occupied by passenger traffic. 

The last is that most used, but to use it from the Docks a 
journey of 17| miles has to be made. 

Now, the second of these routes has this feature about it, 
87 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

that it runs very near to all our principal produce 
markets, and if carried under the river instead of above, 
it might be made to serve them all by means of branches 
to Covent Garden and Billingsgate : Smithfield already 
lies on the route. 

This proposal raises the whole question of London's markets. 
Various unsuccessful attempts have been made to move them, 
particularly Billingsgate. The City Corporation actually erected 
a new fish market at Smithfield, but it was closed after a short time 
and converted into a poultry and game market. 

The vested interests are still very powerful, and the Traffic 
Commission did not dare to make any proposals for change. 

The only change that seems possible is that Covent Garden 
might cease to receive bulk vegetables, such as potatoes, cabbages, 
etc., which might be sold at the termini where received, only the 
vegetables and fruits de luxe going to Covent Garden. Notwith- 
standing any such change, it will always be a consummation devoutly 
to be wished that the streets approaching Covent Garden shall be 
as other streets, and not blocked with tons of produce, sometimes 
highly odoriferous. 

As to fish, it was recently stated in evidence by the General 
Manager of G.C.R. that the quantity of fish carted daily from 
Marylebone to Billingsgate was 44 tons. Further quantities are 
similarly carted from other termini. The proposed line would 
obviate all this. 

It would probably have to be a six-track line, as we have reason 
to believe it would be used very heavily by the Port of London 
Authority in disposing of the produce taken from ships in the 
river which is destined for the west or north-west. 

Once constructed, it would of course be available for suburban 
connections and also for through Continental or other services. 
For these latter purposes alone it would not be justified, but 
for the combined purposes described would constitute a very 
substantial gain to the traffic facilities of London. 

5. Greater use of the Thames and Regent's Canal. 

The number of lighters annually licensed to ply on the Thames 
has been stationary for many years. These are mainly used for 



RAILWAY RECONSTRUCTION 

discharging ships which carry goods consigned to London wharves. 
By unloading in the river they avoid dock dues, which is a con- 
siderable saving. If there were suitable up-river railway wharves, 
many ships now going into dock would do this and send their goods 
direct. We are suggesting such a wharf at Brentford, where in 
1914 the G.W.R. were intending great extensions, probably with 
that idea. 

With regard to the Regent's Canal, although we do not agree 
with the Majority Report of the Canal Commission as to canals 
in England generally, we do feel that, having got a canal already 
made through 11 miles of closely built London premises, it would 
be folly not to make it serve as a proper distribution artery. It 
certainly is not that to-day. It only pays about If per cent, on 
the capital, but if properly developed to take 100-ton barges, and 
with the banks covered with warehouses, as they probably then 
would be (a very small proportion of the frontages are now 
occupied), the canal should be a profitable and useful property. 
It should, if so treated, be handed over to and operated by the 
Port Authority. 

IV. PARCELS TRAFFIC 

The principal remaining classification of goods traffic is that 
known as miscellaneous goods — that is, small parcels. 

As to these, the railways have now very little to do, as most 
of them are carted. Mr. Gooday (General Manager G.E.R. in 
London) gives the figures of Walthamstow (24 lb. per head per 
annum) and Edmonton (12 lb. per head per annum) to compare 
with those for Chelmsford (1,603 lb.). 

These figures show either that the railway cannot take this 
traffic or that its cost is prohibitive. 

In Central London we are now inaugurating a new method of 
transmission of mails by pneumatic tubes. The Post Office has 
commenced the experiment by lines connecting Mount Pleasant 
with the Eastern District and Western District offices. 

No doubt this will be followed by lines connecting north and 
south, and finally the intermediate districts. 

When this has been done and the system is fully organized, 
we suggest further connections between the main railway termini 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

and the pneumatic system, and that the Post Office should accept 
parcels up to 1 cwt. and consign and deliver by this means. 

Eleven pounds is a very low limit of weight for a parcel, and in 
adopting 112 lb. we should only be following Continental example. 

If such a scheme were adopted, it might reasonably be extended 
to include the personal luggage of railway passengers arriving at 
the London termini, either for transit across London to another 
terminus or for delivery to hotel or residence from nearest district 
office. The inevitable result of such a system would be a great 
decrease in the number of taxicabs serving the London stations. 

A great advance has been made during the war towards scien- 
tific collection and delivery of parcels delivered by road by the 
pooling of motor vehicles, whereby, instead of several deliveries to 
one district of small consignments, the whole of the daily delivery 
is assembled at one place and dispatched in one delivery. 

CONCLUSION. 

In presenting this outline of a scheme for the unification of 
London lines — the first complete scheme, we believe, that has been 
formulated — we venture to hope that some contribution has been 
made towards the solution of this complicated problem. It has 
been under the consideration of the Ministry of Transport for some 
time, and it is gratifying to find that, having anticipated the decision 
to group London railways together as one unit, the realization of 
many of these proposals is rendered more possible than before. 



90 
















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COMMERCIAL AVIATION AND 
LONDON 

THE LORD MONTAGU OF BEAULIEU, C.S.I. 



CHAPTER V 

COMMERCIAL AVIATION AND LONDON 

London, the heart of the British Empire, will of necessity be 
one of the chief centres from which commercial flying will start 
and arrive in future. At the present moment the number of 
journeys per inhabitant per year in London is not so great as 
in the case of New York. But this difference is more due to 
local than national reasons. As commercial aviation becomes 
established as the most rapid means of communication between 
distant centres, such as Paris, Ostend, Brussels, other places 
more distant and London, so the traffic between these centres 
will increase and travelling by air will become common enough. 

The comparative certainty and safety with which these journeys 
will be conducted will eventually be recognized, for already the Cross 
Channel services have surprised those who were not aware of the 
possibilities of regularity as well as of speed in the case of the aero- 
plane. In a few years the departures for Continental and oversea 
destinations every day, and perhaps two or three times a day, will 
become just as much a matter of course as the departure and 
arrival of trains at any of our great metropolitan stations. 

London is, however, badly provided at present with aerodromes 
and landing places near its centre. The closest and most con- 
venient regular station at present for departure and arrival is at 
the Hounslow aerodrome, about 11 miles west from Hyde Park 
Corner. It may be interesting to give here a list of the aircraft 
landing grounds near London on October 1, 1919. 

AIRCRAFT LANDING GROUNDS NEAR LONDON. 

Principal Aeroplane Landing Grounds. 
Hendon, Grahame White Company 
Kenley, R.A.F. . . . . . . 15 miles from Charing Cross 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

Hounslow, Government . . . . 13 miles from Charing Cross 

Northolt, R.A.F. . . . . . . Near Hounslow 

Cricklewood, Handley Page Company 
Whitehead Park, Feltham 

Airship Stations. 

Wormwood Scrubs . . . . . . For small airships 

Pulham . . . . . . . . For rigid airships ; 80 miles from 

London 
Bedford . . . . . . . . For rigid airships ; 50 miles from 

London 
Kingsnorth . . . . . . . . For large airships ; 30 miles from 

London 

It is clear that some day a big landing ground as near as possible 
to the centre of London will have to be established. I have already 
suggested that an elevated landing ground may have to be built, over 
a part of one of the parks, with, say, a winter garden underneath — the 
landing ground will be made of a platform of thick glass with open 
sides — or a similar structure over some area of London, say north 
of Oxford Street. The area will perhaps embrace 40 or 50 acres at 
a height of 150 feet, high enough to allow air to pass freely between 
the houses and the platform. The inhabitants living below would only 
feel the difference caused by slight diminution of heat from the 
sun's rays in the summer and some increase of temperature in 
the winter caused by the decrease of radiation which such a roof 
would prevent. On the other hand, the inhabitants of this area would 
never be snowbound or suffer from mud or rain- wetted pavements. 
The glass landing ground would rest on concrete or steel pillars. 
A solution of this kind, though it may seem strange to-day, is in 
my opinion the only way of securing an adequate landing stage 
for aircraft near the heart of London. The destruction of house 
property which would be needed for a landing place on the ground 
itself makes such a solution obviously impossible, on account of 
its cost and the disturbance and rehousing of the population. Also, 
any serious interference with the open spaces of the parks is highly 
undesirable, in view of the necessity of maintaining them as the 
lungs of the community and the playground for London's children. 

But, whatever may be the development of such an idea in the 
future, it is clear that for the time being there is urgent necessity, 
from the point of view of aircraft leaving and arriving near London, 
of better communication by road or rail with the landing grounds 

94 



COMMERCIAL AVIATION 

which already exist. To get to Hounslow or Croydon by road is 
at all times a work of weariness, on account of the multiplicity of 
slow traffic on the road and the obstructive character of the 
tramway traffic through narrow streets. Hendon is situated more 
favourably in this respect, for the Edgware Road is nothing like 
so crowded and is of a fairly good width throughout. Northolt, 
between Harrow and Southall, is not of much importance and 
the road thither is twisty and bad. Whitehead Park, Feltham, is 
forty-five minutes by road from London on an average day, or, to 
put it in another way, it takes one-third as long as the whole 
average journey from London to Paris, namely 2 hours 15 minutes. 
Cricklewood is nearer the north and north-west of London than 
almost any other aerodrome, but here again the Edgware Road 
with its traffic has to be encountered. 

But we must not forget also the possibility of using the Thames 
as an alighting place with " amphibians," which are certain to 
become more and more used as years go on. Already these aircraft 
have been successful in using the Thames, and on any reasonable 
distance between bridges can use this great London waterway. 

When we come to consider the airship stations, the larger ones 
are far too far off from London to be of any practical use, Kings- 
north, the nearest, on the north coast of Kent, being no less than 
30 miles away. It is essential that one big airship station should 
be established in or near London. Wormwood Scrubs is the obvious 
place for this, being in a favourable position for identification from 
the air, close to the Great Western Railway, which forms an 
excellent guiding mark, and containing room enough for the biggest 
airship if sheds were provided. But sheds for the future airship 
traffic of London will have to be many in number and occupy a 
great deal of ground. But these sheds should be looked upon rather 
as docks for aircraft than as places of arrival and departure, for 
the mooring mast system has come to stay and vast sheds are no 
longer needed for ordinary arrivals and departures. 

In regard to the general use of aviation by Londoners, I am 
not one of those who believe that journeys of under 100 miles will 
be usually or usefully performed in the near future, except for 
special purposes. Journeys like London to Brighton, now per- 
formed from terminus to terminus by rail in an hour and by motor- 
car in less than two hours, would not be a long enough distance to 

95 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

make the superior speed of aircraft a real factor. London to 
Liverpool, Manchester and Yorkshire manufacturing centres, Scot- 
land, Ireland and places west of Salisbury, Southampton and 
Oxford would, however, gain greatly by the use of aircraft trans- 
port. But, on the other hand, one must admit that foggy days, 
exceptionally stormy weather, and other climatic conditions will 
render the use of the air occasionally unsatisfactory and often im- 
possible, so, in the matter of these places, transport on the ground, 
whether by road or rail, will still obtain for the majority of ordinary 
traffic. 

But there is one kind of traffic to which aircraft is specially 
suited, namely the transport of mails, or, as I should prefer to call 
them, " airgrams," to really distant places. The airgram will be a 
combination of a letter and a telegram. That is to say, within 
the compass of an ounce of weight at least four thousand words can 
be sent at a price of 2s. an ounce. Such a letter will in many cases 
surpass the present speed of the telegraph service, and can only be 
equalled by telephonic communications, for which the charges would 
be very high and the service at present unsatisfactory. Most 
great London firms will probably send airgrams in the coming 
years to their branches abroad. And for this purpose a solution 
must be found, so far as London is concerned, of the difficulty of 
getting the airgram to the point from which the aircraft takes its 
departure. Either a pneumatic tube conveying mails from a 
certain number of conveniently situated post offices must be pro- 
vided, or by means of the telephone the airgram must be repeated 
to a person at the point of departure, where the message would 
be taken in shorthand, transcribed and typewritten, and dis- 
patched by the first aircraft leaving for a particular centre. 
For long messages, where the cost would be high, photography 
will no doubt be used, and the original manuscript or typescript 
will be photographed in a much reduced size, so as to occupy an 
exceedingly small compass, and enlarged again by the recipient at 
the other end. 

The day also may come when aeroplanes will be able to alight 
in a much smaller space than we realize to-day, say an area repre- 
sented by 200 square yards. If this comes about, then certain 
areas may combine together to roof over their houses and provide 
an area of their own of adequate size, which will form a landing 

96 



COMMERCIAL AVIATION 

and departure ground for their own planes, which will be kept at 
some place outside London and be flown in to pick up their owners, 
in a way similar to that in which motor-cars are kept in garages at 
some distance from the owner's residence to-day. 

Whatever the future of commercial aviation may be, and I 
for one believe it to be almost limitless, London will always 
remain one of the chief brain centres in the world, and London, by 
virtue of its political, social and commercial importance, deserves, 
and should eventually get, the best aircraft service in the world. 



97 



THE BRIDGES OF LONDON 

1815-1920 
SIR REGINALD BLOMFIELD, R.A., Litt.D. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE BRIDGES OF LONDON 

1815-1920 

Bridges over running water seem to possess a certain vitality 
peculiar to themselves. Whether this impression is due to the 
springing arch, or to the suggestion of being above the earth and 
to that extent aloof from it, or to the movement of the water, they 
affect one differently from other buildings, and from time im- 
memorial seem to have had an irresistible attraction for mankind 
which it is not easy to explain. Why, for example, in mediaeval 
times, should people have insisted on building their houses on bridges, 
in spite of the extreme inconvenience to themselves and others, 
the risk of fire from their ramshackle houses, such as the disastrous 
fire on old London Bridge, when three thousand people were said „to 
have perished, the dangers to the fabric of the bridge and other 
common-sense reasons, all of which were impartially ignored, in 
some vague anxiety to put as great a distance as possible between 
one's habitation and the noisome things of earth ? Why, again, 
was the head of the Roman College of Priests called the " Pontifex 
Maximus " ? Was he a bridge-builder to heaven, like the Pontifex 
Maximus of later date, or was he in the first instance a builder of 
actual bridges, the man of skill and genius who met and conquered 
the forces of nature for his fellows ? We must leave these questions 
to the student of primitive religion and content ourselves with the 
fact of the indefinable fascination of bridges over running water, 
and one other fact, that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the 
" Freres Pontifes," the brethren of the order of S. Benezet, were 
actually the men who built and maintained the few bridges that 
existed. The great bridge at Avignon, 900 metres long, now in 
ruins, the Pont Saint-Esprit across the Rhone, 919 metres long, 1 

1 The length of Waterloo Bridge between the abutments is 1,240 feet; Westminster 

101 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

still in use, though much altered, were carried out by these indomit- 
able brethren. Probably old London Bridge, built in the last 
quarter of the twelfth century and attributed to Peter the priest 
of Colechurch, was the work of the Brotherhood. From the clergy, 
bridge-building passed into the hands of the military engineers, 
but its design was recaptured by architects at the Renaissance, 
and remained with them till the middle of the eighteenth century, 
when it passed into the hands of the specialized engineer. All the 
finest stone bridges of the seventeenth and first half of the eigh- 
teenth century seem to have been designed by architects, and it 
is a matter for regret that the designing of bridges should ever have 
passed out of their hands, but architects were themselves partly 
to blame. That arch-impostor, J. H. Mansart, undertook bridges, 
as he was ready to undertake anything else, but the total collapse 
of one of his bridges within a very few years of its being built was 
one of the reasons that led to the establishment of the " Ponts et 
Chaussees " in France and its complete reorganization by Perronet 
in the middle of the eighteenth century. To Perronet and his school 
were due some of the finest bridges in France, but the specialization 
of construction, the severance of engineering from architecture, 
had already begun, with disastrous results to both, and the process 
was completed by the introduction and development of iron, and 
later of steel, construction in the last century. One could wish for 
a class of Freres Pontifes amongst us now, men equally conversant 
with construction and design, men capable of getting the utmost 
possible out of material, both for scientific and aesthetic purposes, 
who out of their construction would evolve forms that are beautiful 
to look upon, instead of plastering on to their construction ridiculous 
attempts at ornament. For a bridge-builder it is not enough to 
be a master of construction and building processes. These ought 
ye to have done and not to leave the other undone, and that 
" other "is of the very essence of the work — the grasp of the 
imaginative problem as a whole, the realization of what the bridge 
means, not merely as a means of transit but as a symbol of the 
life and civilization of the people who use that bridge ; and it is 
here that our modern bridge-builders so lamentably fail. Some 
years ago it was necessary to construct a bridge above the Pool of 

Bridge is 810 feet long between the abutments, little more than one-fourth of the length of 
the Pont Saint-Esprit. The Pont Saint-Esprit is about 40 kilometres above Avignon. 

102 



BRIDGES 

London, the very centre of business of the waterway of the greatest 
city of the world, and all we could produce was that monument 
of artistic ineptitude, Tower Bridge, with its towers like a con- 
fectioner's cake and the clumsy curves of its suspension bars. I 
make no criticism on the engineering solution of the problem. It 
answers its purpose efficiently, and is no doubt very well done, but 
the aesthetic result is patent to anyone who looks eastward from 
London Bridge. What is forgotten nowadays in dealing with 
monumental problems of design, such as bridges and the like, is 
that, after all, technical knowledge of construction, though indis- 
pensable, is not the whole of the equipment necessary. Imagination, 
passion, fine ideals and a range of thought that lives among the 
higher spaces of life are equally vital, are in fact the essential basis 
of great design. Our bridges, serviceable enough as a means of 
transit, have a distressing habit of lapsing into bathos. The artist 
is wanted here not less than the scientific constructor. Where 
the latter sees only his calculations and formulae, the artist will see 
possibilities of emotional expression. He is trained in the appre- 
ciation of form, line and mass, in selection, in sacrifice, and it is 
his business to interpret the aesthetic qualities that lie latent every- 
where, not by superadding things that have no relation to the 
essential purpose of his subject, but by searching out the beauty 
that is inherent in it. The best solution, no doubt, would be to 
combine the two faculties in one man ; but if that is not possible 
in view of the intricate complexities of modern construction, the 
engineer and the artist might at least co-operate. After all, a 
bridge is about the most prominent object it is possible to construct 
anywhere, and as it is impossible to escape it, the aesthetic effect 
of the bridge must be a vital part of the problems of its design. 
There ought to be no difficulty in the co-operation of engineers and 
architects if both of them know their business and if only they 
are ready to pull together. 

It is not very easy to say where the London bridges begin. 
They end with Tower Bridge, but up the river the interminable 
houses extend on both sides of the river up to Putney, with the 
welcome break of Hurlingham. Strictly speaking, the London 
bridges extend from Tower Bridge up to Hammersmith, and 
of these Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Southwark and Black- 
friars are under the control of the Corporation of the City of 

103 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

London, and Waterloo Bridge and the bridges westward, up to, and 
including, Hammersmith Bridge, are under that of the London 
County Council. With the exception of Westminster and Chelsea 
Bridges, which were built for the Government, all the L.C.C. 
bridges were in the first instance built and maintained by private 
companies under powers conferred by Acts of Parliament, and the 
cost was to be recovered from the tolls. In 1877 an Act was passed 
empowering the Metropolitan Board of Works to buy out these 
interests and free the bridges to the public. This was done at a 
cost of £1,376,825, the control passing finally to the L.C.C. in 1895. 1 
It must be admitted that with all its faults of omission and com- 
mission the old Board of Works rendered two admirable services 
to the public— the freeing of the bridges and the construction of 
the Victoria Embankment. Unfortunately, the bridges so acquired 
displayed a want of taste and knowledge inconceivable in any 
period but that of the second half of the nineteenth century. 
To Peter Bell, 

A primrose by a river's brim 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more. 

So to these engineers a bridge seems to have had no symbolism, 
it was just a means of getting from one side of the river to the 
other ; but had they been content to leave it at that, one would 
have gladly acquiesced in their bare construction. The municipal 
authorities of the time seem to have thought it necessary to make 
some concession to aesthetic demands, and instead of consulting 
some competent artist, the engineer, with sublime self-confidence, 
launched out into uncharted seas, and produced the abominations 
of the Hammersmith Suspension Bridge and Chelsea Bridge. The 
L.C.C. Report on Bridges says that Hammersmith Bridge was the 
first suspension bridge over the Thames. It was designed by Mr. 
William Tierney Clarke, and was opened on October 7, 1827. When 
the Metropolitan Board of Works acquired it in 1880, the bridge 
was found to be unsafe and too narrow. A new bridge, opened in 
1887, was designed by Bazalgette, and the Report continues : " The 
only portions of the original structure which were allowed to remain 
were parts of the towers below the road and the abutments." The 

1 See the Report on Bridges, printed for the L.C.C, 1914, P. S. King & Son, 2 and 4 
Great Smith Street, S.W., to which very useful pamphlet I am greatly indebted. 

104 



BRIDGES 

old masonry towers were replaced by " lighter ones of wrought 
iron." I do not know what the old " towers " were like ; they are 
described as having had openings for traffic only 14 feet wide, and 
were no doubt extremely inconvenient, but anything more mean 
and commonplace than Bazalgette's " lighter ones of wrought iron " 
it would be difficult to conceive. They are as bad as the deplor- 
able towers of Chelsea Bridge, two of the worst eyesores in the 
whole length of the river. If only the engineers had learnt to 
leave well alone ! 

Battersea Bridge seems to be a reasonable limit for the London 
bridges. To the west of it the river sweeps round Chelsea Bay 
and then turns southward in a long reach to Wandsworth Bridge. 
Moreover, older London stops at Chelsea and Battersea, with their 
memories of the eighteenth century, and the old bridge of Battersea 
will always live in the work of a great modern painter. The old 
bridge was constructed for Lord Spencer in 1771-2. It was formed 
entirely of wood in nineteen spans, and after having valiantly done 
its work for a hundred years, it was purchased by the Metro- 
politan Board of Works, who found its condition so unsafe that 
they had to set about rebuilding it at once. Bazalgette designed 
the new bridge, which was opened in 1890. It is a singularly ugly 
structure. Five segmental arches of cast-iron ribs on stone piers 
span the river, and above the arches is a large cove which the 
engineers believed would give " lightness to the design of the bridge." 
Its result is to make it look weak, and the L.C.C. Report says that 
on foggy nights it has led to accidents, because bargemen mistake it 
for the outline of the arch. Above this cove there is a preposterous 
little balustrade of a Moorish design, reminiscent of the Alhambra — 
the Alhambra, that is, of Leicester Square, not of Granada. Alto- 
gether it is a poor design. The work of the engineer of the Metro- 
politan Board of Works was, to say the least of it, puzzling. Some 
of it was very good, as, for example, the Victoria Embankment, 1 and 
some of it very bad, as, for example, the Battersea Bridge and the 
Chelsea Embankment. 2 The difference is so great that it seems 
inconceivable that they were all designed by the same hand, and 
that the man who could design the splendid detail of the Victoria 
Embankment could also have been responsible for the coarse and 

1 Opened in 1870 ; J. W. Bazalgette engineer. 

2 Opened in 1874 ; J. W. Bazalgette engineer. 

105 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

ignorant detail of Battersea Bridge, or, for the matter of that, of 
the Chelsea Embankment. The details of the latter are very 
inferior. The mouldings are ignorant and have no meaning, and 
the engineer perversely rusticated the retaining walls of the embank- 
ment on the side of the river, thus affording a convenient resting 
place for all the garbage of the river. Battersea Bridge has, how- 
ever, one merit. It is approached by long straight roads, which, 
though not quite axial on the north side, are nearly so, and as the 
gradient of the bridge is low, a fine long vista is obtained across 
it southwards. 

There is little to detain us in the Albert Suspension Bridge, 
hung like a great spider's web spun across the river. It was designed 
by Mr. R. W. Ordish, C.E., in 1873, and the only remarkable thing 
about it is the width of the centre spans of 383 feet and the height 
of the towers, 101 feet above high water. The Report says, " The 
whole structure is from an engineering point of view very un- 
satisfactory," and from an artistic point of view it is worse than 
that. It looks like a temporary gangway flung across the river, 
and in fact is not very much more. Both on this and the Chelsea 
Bridge, troops have to break step in crossing, and no load above 
five tons is allowed. 

The Chelsea Suspension Bridge is even worse, because it is more 
ambitious. This bridge was built in 1851-7 from the designs of 
Mr. T. Page, C.E. Its kiosques and gilt finials, its travesty of Gothic 
architecture in cast iron, its bad construction and its text of " Gloria 
in excelsis " above the arch between the piers are redolent of 1851, 
the year of the Great Exhibition, the locus classicus of bad art, false 
enthusiasm and shams. In spite of its pious aspirations, the bridge 
had to be strengthened six years after its completion and again in 
1880, and even so will not carry more than a load of five tons. The 
worst of it is that this bridge blocks the view of Chelsea Hospital 
as one enters London by trains crossing Grosvenor Bridge. Instead 
of wasting money on paint and patching, it is to be hoped that this 
bridge will some day be replaced by a permanent structure. The 
approach on the south side next Battersea Park is a fine one, and 
that on the north side could be improved without much difficulty. 
This matter of the approaches to our bridges has been far too much 
ignored from the very first. It is a point that was never overlooked 
by the best French bridge-builders. 

106 



BRIDGES 

The next traffic bridge down the river is the important bridge 
of Vauxhall. This is so far the last completed of the London 
bridges, and though it is open to criticism, it is notable as being the 
first serious attempt in recent times to regard a great bridge as 
something more than a mere engineering problem. There was an 
earlier bridge at Vauxhall, built in 1811-16, at a cost of £296,998. 
This bridge, designed by John Rennie, consisted of nine iron arches 
of a span of 78 feet, and was the first iron bridge across the Thames. 
It was taken over by the Metropolitan Board of Works at a cost 
of £255,000, but a few years later was found to be unsafe, and in 
1895 the L.C.C. obtained powers to rebuild the bridge, and the 
work was completed in 1906 from the designs of Sir Maurice Fitz- 
maurice and Mr. W. E. Riley, superintending architect to the 
L.C.C. The bridge is in five spans, with steel arches on granite 
piers and abutments. A bold ovolo moulding projects above the 
crown of the arches, carrying a light iron balustrade. On the piers 
above the cutwaters are steel recessed panels, four on each side, 
filled with bronze figures of heroic size by Mr. Alfred Drury, R.A., 
and Mr. F. W. Pomeroy, R.A., representing Local Government, 
Education, Science, Fine Arts, Pottery, Engineering, Agriculture 
and Architecture. The bridge is of fine Avidth — 80 feet — and 
of a good outline, and has the merit of showing its steel con- 
struction without any attempt to make it look like masonry. In 
order to get headway without too steep a gradient, the arches had 
to be kept very shallow, and it was to correct this thinness that 
Mr. Riley designed the unusual balustrade of iron bars with a 
secondary rail, carrying through the top of the piers. Though 
perhaps the treatment is rather light and hardly in scale, it is a 
metal treatment, and a break away from the habit of trying to get 
the effect of stone ornament in cast iron. The figures themselves 
are dignified and impressive, but their position on the piers is open 
to question. It is doubtful whether in any case it is right to put 
figures below the bridge level and on the face of the piers instead 
of on the top of them. In this position it is difficult to get them 
into scale with the bridge itself, as can be seen from the failure of 
the figures on the Pont de l'Alma at Paris, where the effect is almost 
grotesque. In the Vauxhall Bridge the setting is hardly adequate 
for the figures, and the only people who can see these figures are 
the crews of the tugs and barges that go up and down the river, 

107 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

as the Embankment stops short on either side and the nearest 
point from which the bridge can be seen is the Embankment in front 
of the Tate Gallery. Moreover, the figures, being of bronze against 
a dingy green paint, are lost against the background. When the 
sun is west of the bridge, these figures are hardly visible at a dis- 
tance, and it ought to be almost a rule in our climate that when 
bronze is used in the open it should be set against a light background, 
such as Portland stone. Here, however, at any rate, a serious effort 
has been made to treat the bridge as a great public monument. 

There is nothing to detain us on our way down stream till we 
come to Westminster, for the Lambeth Suspension Bridge is an 
insignificant affair ; its end bays are sagging seriously, and for over 
twenty-five years it has been practically condemned. In an impor- 
tant part of the river, such as this, a suspension bridge should never 
have been allowed. Looking down the river from Vauxhall Bridge, 
the outline of the Lambeth Bridge cuts the lines of Lambeth, St. 
Thomas's Hospital, the Houses of Parliament and Somerset House 
beyond in the most disagreeable manner ; but the bridge-designers 
of the last century seem to have thought it unnecessary to consider 
the bearing of their design on its setting and surroundings. 

With Westminster Bridge begins that splendid series of bridges, 
embankments and buildings which makes the view from West- 
minster Bridge the finest thing in London, perhaps in the world. 
The old Westminster Bridge was begun in 1739 and completed in 
1750, from the designs of Labelye, a Swiss engineer, at a cost of 
£389,500. Labelye seems to have been careless or over-confident 
about his foundations, for he omitted any piling under the piers 
and built them in caissons, directly in the soil, at a depth of from 
5 feet to 14 feet below the bed of the river. The piers were constructed 
of huge blocks of Portland stone, weighing from one to three tons 
and fastened with iron cramps. There were thirteen large arches, 
the largest 76 feet in span, and two small ones at the ends, the total 
length of the bridge being 1,223 feet and th6 width 44 feet. It 
must have been a fine-looking bridge. I saw recently in a print- 
shop a beautiful aquatint in blue and silver of old Westminster 
Bridge. The view was taken from the site of the new L.C.C. build- 
ings before the Houses of Parliament were burnt and rebuilt, and 
shows Westminster Hall rising above the arches of the bridge, and 
beyond it the towers and roofs of the Abbey. Fine as Barry and 

108 



BRIDGES 

Pugin's design is in some ways, it blocks the Hall and the Abbey, 
and it seems to have lost us one of the most beautiful architectural 
compositions that ever existed in London. But Labelye's construc- 
tion was faulty, and in 1831, after the removal of old London Bridge, 
the increased scour gradually washed away the foundations of 
Westminster Bridge, until its rebuilding became inevitable. The 
work was entrusted to Mr. Page, the engineer of the Chelsea Sus- 
pension Bridge, and was completed in 1862. It is a great improve- 
ment on the Chelsea Bridge, and though at a far lower artistic level, 
is, next to Waterloo Bridge, the most satisfactory of the later London 
bridges. The bridge is in seven spans, formed with iron arches 
varying from 94 feet 9 inches at the sides to 120 feet wide in the 
centre arch. The piers and abutments are of granite, and though 
the details are rather absurd, it is a solid and by no means undigni- 
fied structure, being of ample width (84 feet 2 inches between the 
parapets) and having the great advantage of important buildings 
on either side of the approaches at each end. It is true there is no 
sort of balance in these buildings ; at the south end, St. Thomas's 
Hospital and the new L.C.C. buildings are too close in to the bridge, 
and at the north end the business premises are unequal to the 
task of standing up to the Parliament buildings across the road ; 
but seen from Charing Cross Bridge, with Shaw's splendid Scotland 
Yard in the foreground, the bridge and the Westminster buildings 
make a noble group. The lattice girders of the South Eastern 
Railway bridge block the view, and till this is removed, Londoners 
will not realize what they possess. 

Waterloo Bridge is the last of the L.C.C. bridges eastward, 
and by universal consent is architecturally the finest bridge in 
England, if not in the world. Its history is curious and character- 
istic of our English methods. In France a bridge of this impor- 
tance would, as a matter of course, have been undertaken by the 
State. In England it was the work throughout of a private com- 
pany. In 1809 an Act of Parliament authorized the formation of 
the " Strand Bridge Company," with a capital of £500,000, increased 
in 1813 to £700,000, and again increased in 1816. The bridge was 
designed by John Rennie ; the first stone was laid on October 11, 
1811, and the bridge was opened by the Prince Regent on June 18, 
1817, the second anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. The name 
had already (1816) been changed from Strand to Waterloo Bridge, 

109 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

and the words of the Act of 1816 are memorable : " The said bridge 
when completed will be a work of great stability and magnificence ; 
and such works are adapted to transmit to posterity the remem- 
brance of great and glorious achievements." It was therefore 
decided that " a name should be given to the said bridge which 
shall be a lasting record of the brilliant and decisive victory achieved 
by His Majesty's Forces," and no monument could more fully express 
the grim and enduring courage of the British soldier of 1815. The 
total cost of the bridge and approaches was £937,392. In 1877 it 
was acquired by the Metropolitan Board of Works for £474,200, 
when the toll-gates were removed. With the exception of certain 
works necessitated by the scour of the river in 1882, the removal 
and subsequent return of the original iron lamp-standards, and the 
skilfully executed alterations for the tramway on the west side, this 
great bridge has stood its hundred years without any alteration or 
failure, and, unlike the new bridges across the Thames, there is no 
limit to the weight of vehicles using the bridge. 1 

The bridge is so familiar that no description is necessary. It 
is a standing example of what may be done by a good man with 
the simplest possible means. There is no ornament, except the 
modillion cornice and the coupled columns above the cutwaters, 
but the whole design is so admirably balanced, the proportions 
are so perfect, the details, simple as they are, so exactly right and 
so instinct with knowledge in reserve, that criticism is ungrateful 
to one who day after day has passed under its arches and watched 
it, immutable, yet never the same under the changes of our rest- 
less skies, gathering up into itself all the elements of romance — 
the storm, the sunshine, the power and the tragedy of London's 
glorious river. Yet I confess to an incessant curiosity as to who 
really designed the form and fashion of this bridge. That Rennie 
was the engineer, and an extremely able one, we all know ; but 
Rennie also designed London Bridge a few years later, and this is so 

1 L.C.C. Bridges, Historical and Descriptive Notes, p. 56. The bridge is constructed of 
granite in nine elliptical spans, each of 120 feet with a rise of 35 feet ; the total length is 
1,240 feet, and the width between parapets 42 feet 6 inches. The bridge of Neuilly, 
constructed from the designs of Perronet in 1772, though in five arches only, has very 
similar proportions. The arches are 120 feet wide with a rise of 30 feet. The piers 
are 13 feet thick as against the 20 feet of Waterloo, and the width is 45 feet out to out, 
almost identical. It is a testimony to the soundness of the work of the English engineer 
that, whereas the arches of Perronefs bridge settled some 8 inches after the centres were 
struck, the arches of Waterloo Bridge only settled li inches. 

110 



BRIDGES 

inferior and his treatment of his iron bridges was so unattractive, 
that, as in the case of the Victoria Embankment, one cannot help 
asking who helped the engineer. There is a legend in the Temple 
that Rennie got the designs from some broken-down architect in 
prison, and the hand of an architect, and of a very good one, is 
written all over it. When Waterloo Bridge was built architects were 
still enthusiastic for the severest forms of Greek architecture. Were 
any of the leading architects of the time consulted ? Did Soane 
or either of the Inwoods or Decimus Burton lend a hand ; or do 
we owe the Sicilian Doric of the columns, the fine and even learned 
profiling of the cornice, the admirable spacing of the rustications, 
to some unknown draughtsman, some forgotten and unrecognized 
genius in Rennie's office ? The motives of these columns in this 
position and the modillion cornice were undoubtedly due to an 
architect, for in the old Blackfriars Bridge, begun in 1760, Robert 
Mylne, the architect, had also placed pairs of columns above the 
cutwaters and a modillion cornice with the architrave omitted 
above the arch, exactly as in Waterloo Bridge. Mylne had used 
rather attenuated Ionic columns, and the general scale of the Black- 
friars Bridge was inferior to that of Waterloo ; but whoever it was, 
whether Rennie or his draughtsman or another, the designer took 
this motive and handled it with the audacity of a master. In one 
point only the design seems to me open to criticism : the voussoirs 
in the crown of the arch are not quite deep enough. With one more 
effort of audacity the designer might have broken through his frieze 
and carried these voussoirs through to the soffit of the cornice. The 
central voussoirs appear to be about 4 feet to 5 feet deep. According 
to Belidor's rules for the depths of voussoirs in an arch of 120 feet 
span they ought to be 8 feet deep. In the crown of the arches of 
Waterloo Bridge they are too shallow for effect. 

With Blackfriars begins the series of City bridges. The exist- 
ing bridge is a standing example of foolish ornament. About forty 
years ago these stumpy little columns, about two to three diameters 
in height, with their enormous capitals doing nothing, were rather 
the fashion, apparently an attempt to catch the Romanesque 
manner of Burgess. Here they carry nothing, nor have they any 
relation as a motive of design to the iron arches. If one is going to 
use steel or iron in bridges, the least one can do is to atbempt to 
make the most out of its essential qualities, its capacity to do a 

ill 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

great amount of work with a relatively small amount of material ; 
and if stone or granite or softer material is used in connection 
with steel or iron, the design should subordinate itself to the char- 
acter of the harsher material — it should eschew all florid detail and 
make up in mass what it lacks in concentrated strength. In the 
old Southwark Bridge, now destroyed, with its three great iron 
arches and massive stone piers, Rennie managed the combination 
perfectly well, but modern engineers will never learn to let. well 
alone. Tower Bridge is an even worse example than Black- 
friars of the same failure in ideas, though candour compels me to 
admit that the Gothic lowers and gateways were designed by an 
architect. Since the building of St. Paul's no finer chance has 
offered itself in London for a great monumental design. With the 
Tower of London to set the scale, with the splendid waterway it 
was to span, with all the past and present of the City of London to 
symbolize, this bridge might have been a monument of the great- 
ness of the British Empire ; and it is — what it is. Let us hope that 
the new Southwark Bridge will redeem the reputation of the City 
Fathers. 

London Bridge completes Jhis short survey. 1 Till nearly the 
middle of the eighteenth century the old bridge was the only bridge 
possessed by London, and it is amazing that, constructed as it was, it 
should have lasted for over six hundred years. It was begun in 1176, 
and appears to have been finished early in the thirteenth century. 
It was 926 feet by 20 feet wide, and formed with twenty arches, with 
a drawbridge in the centre. The citizens of London at once pro- 
ceeded to load it up with houses, and the multiplication of piers 
so blocked the waterway that the bridge was in constant danger of 
being washed away by floods. Five arches went in 1282, destroyed 
by drifting ice. The houses caught fire from time to time, and 
the passage under the bridge became more and more dangerous. 
In the aquatint view of London Bridge by Milton, the water is shown 
rushing through like a millrace. In the middle of the eighteenth 
century an Act of Parliament was obtained for the removal of all 
buildings on the bridge, and in 1759 Dance, the City architect, and 
Taylor converted two of the old arches into a large central arch. 
Finally, some six hundred years after its building, it was decided 
to remove old London Bridge and build a new one close by. This 

1 See Britton and Pugin, Edifices of London, ii. 303-13. 
112 



BRIDGES 

was before 1801, but it was not till 1824 that the new bridge was 
actually begun from the designs made by John Rennie and under 
the superintendence of his son. The Sunday Times for November 23, 
1828, records that on November 23, 1828, the keystone of the last 
arch " was slowly lowered amidst discharge of cannon to its place. 
The Lord Mayor took a mallet in his hand and struck the stone 
three times. On the third stroke the whole assembly gave three 
cheers." In the Guildhall there is a collection of admirable pencil 
drawings by E. Cooke, R.A., showing the old bridge in various 
stages of demolition and the construction of the new. 

The bridge is on five arches of unequal spans, instead of the 
nine of Waterloo Bridge. Rennie increased his span from 120 feet 
to 150 feet in the central span, a daring piece of construction which 
J. H. Mansart had foolishly attempted in a bridge over the Allier 
at Moulins, which totally collapsed within ten years of its being 
built. Yet London Bridge is disappointing. Instead of keeping 
his courses the same depth, Rennie, following Mylne, reduced them 
as they ascended. He omitted any solid walling above the piei\s, 
carrying his balustrade through without a break ; in both cases 
with most unfortunate effect. It is probable that these alterations 
were forced upon Rennie, or introduced by his son as the work 
proceeded, as they do not show in the contemporary illustration 
in Britton and Pugin ; l but the design throughout is dull. If one 
stands on the Old Swan Pier and looks up the river, there is the 
South-Eastern Railway bridge to Cannon Street. It is not lovely, 
nor does it affect to be anything but what it is, a solid, ugly 
railway bridge ; yet when the tide is running out and the wind is 
in the sky and the grey water comes swirling under these piers, 
this bridge, too, has its quality — it sends the imagination roving 
to other lands and far-distant ages. 

The bridge problem is a serious one. So far, with one or two 
not entirely successful exceptions, it has been considered mainly 
from the engineering point of view, or rather as an affair of con- 
struction plus ill-chosen and ill-adjusted ornament, instead of being 
thought out as a problem of practical conditions translated into 
beautiful forms by the ability of the designer. A great bridge 
should be something more than a mere means of transit. It is not 

1 See Britton and Pugin, Public Edifices (1828). A parapet wall is shown with breaks 
over the piers, greatly to the improvement of the design. 

113 H 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

enough to throw a girder across a river or suspend a roadway with 
steel cables. A bridge should have an imaginative significance, 
not lost sight of by the great bridge-builders of the past and still 
waiting to be recovered. Where the bridge over is impossible, 
there is still the tunnel under, and this too requires thought and 
imagination in its approach and frontispiece. Both bridge and 
tunnel will be wanted. During the war a temporary bridge was 
thrown across the Thames at Gravesend, and at this vital point 
it is essential that some means should be provided for getting from 
one side of the river to the other. The ferry service at Woolwich 
is another case in point. This too should be replaced by a road 
tunnel, designed as part of the general plan of development sug- 
gested by The London Society in connection with the East London 
Dock systems. There is no reason why the entrance to a tunnel 
should be ugly ; on the contrary, it is a fine opportunity for design, 
e.g. the tunnel under the Quirinal at Rome or the entrance to the 
tramway tunnel at Waterloo Bridge. 

New bridges, too, will be wanted, small and great. The River 
Lea still forms a barrier, so does the Wandle, and lastly there is 
the crying need of the great roadway bridge across the river from 
Charing Cross, with the unequalled opportunity it may provide 
for a fitting Memorial urbi et orbi of the Great War. Five years 
ago, with Sir Aston Webb and Mr. John Burns, I put forward 
a tentative suggestion for the line this bridge might follow, 
having the spire of St. Martin's in the Fields at the end of 
the vista looking north. On some such lines as that a great 
scheme might be worked out, with noble approaches and vistas, 
" Places " and triumphal arches at either end, the best of our 
sculpture, the finest of our architecture, to speak to future ages of 
the heroism and sacrifice of the unnumbered dead and of the 
patient devotion of those men and women who worked at home, 
without reward, from simple faith and patriotism. Waterloo Bridge, 
though not built for that purpose, is still the noblest monument 
of the men of 1815, and in its perfect scale and admirable restraint 
shows us the way. We have passed through the fiery furnace, and 
the record of this war shows that the spirit of 1815 lives stronger 
than ever throughout the Empire. What finer symbol of that 
spirit could there be than some great bridge such as Waterloo, 
if only we can rise again to the level of our opportunity. 

114 



LONDON AND THE CHANNEL 
TUNNEL 

SIR ARTHUR FELL, M.P. 



CHAPTER VII 

LONDON AND THE CHANNEL TUNNEL 

Charing Cross is distant more than 70 miles from the entrance 
to the Channel Tunnel, which will be situate on the chalk downs 
behind Dover, but the construction of this tunnel will have an 
immense influence on the future of London, an influence which it 
is hard to realize at its true value. 

London is at present crammed to overflowing, and with all the 
shops and theatres doing a record trade and with every means of 
locomotion overcrowded. People may well wonder, under these 
conditions, if anything could render London more popular and more 
prosperous than it is, and if any change can be needed to draw 
more people and more money to it as the centre of our Empire. 

The answer to this is, the present boom, which is world-wide, 
will pass away, and competition will arise again, and the country 
or city which stands still and which merely beats time will assuredly 
be passed in the struggle and lose its pre-eminence in the world. 

London has perforce stood still for the five years of the war, 
as have the other capitals of Europe, but the question now arises, 
Is London to continue to stand still, or what does it propose to do 
now that the war is over ? What great plans and improvements 
are contemplated and what great works are to be undertaken ? 

The great drapers, in numbers, intend, it is reported, to rebuild 
their premises and increase their stores ; new theatres and music- 
halls and cinemas and new hotels will be erected, Devonshire 
House, in Piccadilly, may be pulled down and a great caravanserai 
built in its place ; but all these improvements simply mean that 
London will be a little larger. A little more of everything will be 
provided for the people, but nothing more. 

Paris, on the other hand, has decided to undertake a memor- 
able work. It will remove the walls and fortifications which 

117 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

encircle Paris. The visitor hardly notices these fortifications as the 
trains cut their way through them. When he drives out of Paris 
to the Bois de Boulogne, he may perhaps notice the grassy slopes 
of the Enceinte, the walls and dry moat and the glacis on the other 
side, as he passes through the Porte Maillot, but he takes little heed 
of them. These fortifications are some 30 miles in circumference, 
and although but a hundred yards or so in breadth they cover 
in the whole an immense acreage of most valuable ground. This 
regained land is partly to be laid out in gardens and partly to 
be built on, and new great streets and boulevards will be made ; 
and when we think of the magnificence of French buildings and 
the grandeur of the broad streets the French lay out, we may 
realize that a new Paris will be created and that the victorious war 
will be thus fittingly commemorated. The grand boulevards of 
Paris, stretching from the Place de la Concorde to the Bastille, are 
on the site of the old walls and fortifications of Paris, and we 
appreciate what their removal has meant to modern Paris. 

We have in London made no great improvement since the 
construction of the Thames Embankment. Some new streets have 
been driven through the poor and crowded district between Oxford 
Street and Piccadilly and the Strand, but they are nothing note- 
worthy. We may build half a dozen Shaftesbury Avenues and 
Kingsways, which will to some extent relieve the traffic and provide 
sites for new hotels and theatres, but that is all. They will make 
London bigger, but they will not make it greater or more worthy of 
its position and pre-eminence as the biggest city of the world and 
the capital of the greatest Empire. 

The prospect of the early construction of the Channel Tunnel, 
which now seems nearer of accomplishment than at any previous 
time, holds out possibilities of a new and great future for London — 
a future which will leave its mark upon it, and, if taken advantage 
of wisely, will create a new London for our children, which will 
assure its position in the Empire for all time. 

The Channel Tunnel means two tubes under the Straits of 
Dover, about 30 miles long and 20 feet in diameter, connecting the 
Chemin de Fer du Nord of France and the South-Eastern and 
Chatham Railway of England. These tubes seem but a small 
thing to effect all that is expected of them. 

To many this tunnel means but an easier and quicker means 

118 



LONDON AND THE CHANNEL TUNNEL 

of getting to Paris. The journey will be made without sea-sickness, 
the trouble with hand luggage at Dover and Calais, and the 
exasperating struggles that take place in the Custom House and in 
getting seats in the trains at Calais and Boulogne. The tunnel 
means, however, very much more than this. It will affect the 
position of London as the great railway centre of Great Britain 
and make it the great world terminus of Europe, Asia and Africa, 
the gateway of the East, the starting point of the great express 
trains for India, for Palestine and Africa, which will surely follow 
on the opening of the tunnel. Upon it will depend the direction of 
the flow of the great Transatlantic travel. Will this travel pass 
through London, or will it give it the go-by and pass direct to the 
Continent through the great seaports in France, Belgium, Holland 
and Germany, which will all be competing for it ? Will London, 
in fact, be side-tracked, as the Americans call it, or will it secure 
the full benefit of the prize which will be at its feet ? 

There will be for a very long time — possibly for fifty or a hundred 
years— a steady, continuous stream of travellers who will visit the 
scenes of the Great War. It was the World's War, and they will 
come from every quarter of the world to see the battlefields, which 
will be described in countless books to be written in increasing 
numbers every year. There was a never-failing stream of English 
visitors to the Field of Waterloo right up to the very time of the 
Great War— and on the field of Waterloo only fifty thousand British 
were engaged, whilst on the battlefields of France ten million 
French, British and Americans were engaged against the eight 
million soldiers of Germany and Austria. There is no one who has 
not had relatives fighting, and few who have not relatives who 
have found their graves in France. The widespread interest will 
create the greatest travel, the greatest movement of passengers 
and travellers the world has ever witnessed. 

So far as England is concerned, this movement will flow from 
England to the Continent and back to England without any change 
being made in our means of communication, but what route will 
the passenger traffic from other lands take ? Will the travellers 
from the Western World pass through England and via London, or 
will they go direct to the Continental ports instead ? If the Channel 
Tunnel is not built and every facility offered to travellers from the 
United States and South America, they will not come to England. 

119 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

They will not land at Liverpool or Southampton, travel up to London 
and then cross over by steamer to France, and then travel by train 
to Paris or the battlefields, but will rather go direct to Havre or 
Cherbourg or St. Nazaire, and so avoid the Channel crossing. This 
crossing is, to many, a bugbear worse than an Atlantic voyage. An 
English Admiral said the other day that he was never seasick on 
a man-of-war, but that he never could cross the Channel without 
suffering agonies ; and many Americans cross the Atlantic in the 
liners without a qualm, but succumb to the Channel crossing. This 
Channel crossing must always remain about the worst sea passage 
in the world. The gales and fogs and small harbours in France 
make it exceptionally difficult to maintain the service. In September 
1917 it was interrupted by storms for four consecutive days. One 
of the small paddleboats which are always used in rough weather 
started on the second day of the gales from Folkestone, full of troops, 
but could not enter the French harbour and had to return, and a 
similar experience happens every year. 

The Channel Tunnel will, however, do away with all these 
difficulties and make the Continental system of railways a part 
of our own. The two tubes, with the up and doAvn lines, will be 
able to carry an enormous traffic. Thirty thousand passengers and 
thirty thousand tons of goods can be conveyed through them in 
twenty hours, leaving an interval or margin of four hours each night 
for repairs and renewals and change of staff. This would mean they 
could convey to France nearly eleven million passengers in a year, 
whilst the passenger traffic, judging from the pre-war figures, would 
amount to about two million only in the year. 

The traffic to the Continent will certainly double on the opening 
of the Tunnel, but it will be many years before it can have outgrown 
its carrying capacity. 

The tunnel will assuredly be built, and the passenger traffic 
will multiply probably beyond all expectations, but the question 
remains, How will London deal with it ? Can London cope with it, 
and conduct it with comfort and give the facilities demanded by 
modern civilization ? 

The answer must be that with the existing stations and 
railways this will be impossible. The stations available are Charing 
Cross, Cannon Street, Victoria and the Holborn Viaduct. They 
are all now working to almost their full capacity, and they could 

120 



LONDON AND THE CHANNEL TUNNEL 

not possibly, in addition to their present traffic, accommodate an 
addition of even hourly great Continental trains with their sleeping- 
cars, their dining-cars and huge baggage-cars. 

The platform accommodation is quite inadequate, and the 
access to the stations by the existing roads would prove a problem 
which no police could solve. The stations can just about manage 
the English traffic to the South Coast towns and the growing 
suburban traffic, but the addition of, say, from twenty to fifty great 
European expresses to their daily service of trains would be an 
impossibility, and the block in the streets in the neighbourhood of 
the stations would create a position which would be intolerable. 

What can London do to meet the situation which will arise, 
and accommodate the great world traffic and meet the requirements 
of shoals of Americans and Colonials, who will certainly come to 
London if they can proceed to the Continent, and to Palestine, 
Egypt and the East, with proper comfort and facilities ? If they 
do not get these facilities, they will most certainly avoid England 
and London and go direct to some Continental port. 

There are, however, some shrewd and far-seeing Londoners 
who say that London can rise to the occasion and do all that is 
necessary to make it the railroad centre of the Old World and the 
starting point for all the trains that will run, not only to Paris, 
Switzerland and the Riviera, but to Constantinople and the East, 
to Moscow and Siberia, to Italy, to Spain and Morocco, and even to 
Berlin and Vienna. 

They propose to build a great Empire Station over the water in 
Surrey, somewhere in Southwark or Blackfriars, more than double 
the size of any of our present stations, with a magnificent high-level 
bridge across the River Thames on the site of the present Charing 
Cross railway bridge, opening out on the Strand and Trafalgar 
Square at one end and with the Empire Station at the other end — 
a roadway and bridge like the Pont Alexandre at Paris, about half 
as wide again as Westminster Bridge. Along this bridge would roll 
the motor-cars and taxi-cabs carrying the passengers and their 
luggage to the station, whence the trains would run to all parts of 
the world, whilst beneath the Thames would be tubes to connect 
up all parts of London with this Empire Station. 

This scheme, if carried out, would not only provide London 
with the finest bridge and road in the world, starting from the very 

121 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

heart of London, but it would open up to Londoners the unknown 
regions of Southwark and Blackfriars and the populous and neglected 
districts of the south, and make them really a part of London, and 
incidentally, as a result, would probably double the value of all the 
houses and property there. 

The River Thames makes a great bend between the City and 
Westminster, and the Embankment and Fleet Street, the Strand 
and Whitehall are all on the outer circle of the great bend of the 
river. The usual routes from east to west are thus all greatly 
lengthened by their position on the outside of this bend. If you 
take the map of London and a pair of compasses, and start from 
a point at the middle of Roupell Street, between Waterloo Bridge 
Road and Blackfriars Road, you will find how central that spot is, 
and how short is the distance from that centre to St. Paul's on the 
east and Westminster on the west — the streets over the bridges 
radiate from it almost like a fan — and that, as a matter of fact, with 
the new bridge and road over the Thames to Charing Cross, it will 
be the most central spot for the new great terminus that could be 
found in London. From it a taxi-cab would take you in ten 
minutes to any part of Inner London, which could not be said of 
the positions of any of the great stations on the northern side of 
the river. 

To clear this site no buildings of any importance would have 
to be sacrificed. It is a neighbourhood which the majority of the 
inhabitants of London have never seen. Some pass over it on the 
South Eastern Railway, and some pass under it in the tube from 
Waterloo to the Bank, but few Londoners have ever walked through 
it or know anything of it. How many know the wooden houses 
which are certainly two hundred years old and which may be found 
at the end of Roupell Street where it joins Blackfriars Road ? They 
are a monument of good timber and building, and in one of them 
resided recently a man whose trade was that of a professional 
"knocker-up" — a man who for a small weekly fee called persons 
in the neighbourhood at any hour of the day or night ! His 
business card hung in his window. The neighbourhood is dull 
and monotonous, and has been growing steadily worse and more 
dull and hopeless every year. 

When Londoners think of London south of the Thames and 
compare it with other cities — with Paris south of the Seine— they 

122 



LONDON AND THE CHANNEL TUNNEL 

may well feel ashamed at the way that great part of London has 
been neglected in the past. 

Paris has its finest monuments across the river. They are too 
numerous to mention, but the Pantheon, the Invalides, the Luxem- 
bourg, the University, the Eiffel Tower, the Chamber of Deputies, 
are a few that every travelled Englishman knows. Is there any 
ordinary Londoner who could name any buildings or monuments 
south of the Thames beyond St. Thomas's Hospital and Waterloo 
Station ? Some may know of the Oval, the Elephant and Castle, 
Bethlehem Hospital and Spurgeon's Tabernacle. The London 
County Council Town Hall, when finished, will be a beginning, and 
when the new bridge and great station are added, the very heart 
of this neglected London will be opened up and other improve- 
ments will follow, and the south of the river will be raised from the 
deadly torpor which has overshadowed it for the past forty years. 

It was quite different fifty years ago. At that time Astley's 
Theatre was fashionable and all London flocked to see Miss Ada 
Menken as " Mazeppa " on her barebacked steed. The " Old Vic," 
as it was called, drew all London for its pantomimes and its trans- 
pontine blood-curdling dramas — farther back, Vauxhall Gardens was 
the centre of fashionable London. 

From an artistic point of view, the present Charing Cross 
railway and foot bridge has always been criticized. Mr. John Burns 
expressed a particular antipathy to it and described it in the House 
of Commons as a Behemoth or monstrous erection which ruined the 
view from Westminster Bridge and from the Embankment. 

The proposed new bridge and approach will do away with this 
railway bridge and Charing Cross Station. 

A picture recently published represents a proposed low-level 
bridge at this spot, crossing the Thames from the back of the 
Embankment at the end of Northumberland Avenue. 

A high-level bridge is, however, more favoured now — a bridge 
on the site of the Charing Cross bridge, carried on the level of 
Trafalgar Square and the Strand, and passing over the Embank- 
ment as Waterloo Bridge crosses it on the high level a quarter of a 
mile lower down the river. 

Whatever plan is adopted, it will do away with the present 
railway bridge and the station and the railway carried on arches 
on the other side of the river, and replace it with a magnificent 

123 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

bridge and road which will have no equal in England or in the 
world. 

This is the great proposal put forward for London as a fitting 
work to be undertaken to commemorate the peace and the com- 
mencement of the Channel Tunnel which will unite us to our Ally, 
France. Friendship and commerce will go hand in hand, and will 
both be assisted by this great work, which will assist the two 
countries to recover from the effects of the war and give Englishmen 
and Londoners something great to look forward to. 



124 



THE SURREY SIDE 

PAUL WATERHOUSE, F.S.A., P.R.I.B.A. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE SURREY SIDE 1 

To many born Londoners the south side of the river exists merely because any river 
must have two sides to it. But it is as remote from them and their lives as though it 
were in the Antipodes — more so indeed. — Elinor Mordaunt : The Park Wall. 

The future of the Surrey side of the Thames offers a problem which 
demands very serious attention. The present utilization — one might 
say the present misuse — of the land which borders the right bank 
of the Thames from Lambeth to Southwark is the result of a strange 
combination of historic facts and of — sentiment. 

Probably sentiment, or the survival of certain illogical ideas, 
has more to do with the existing condition of affairs than have 
any real facts or any reasons based upon necessity and convenience. 
The Thames was, in primitive London, a definite barrier between 
shore and shore. To-day it is spanned by many bridges ; these 
bridges are crossed daily and hourly by swarms of traffic ; more- 
over, the bed of the river is burrowed under by three lines of rail- 
way ; and yet the barrier remains a barrier. This is the more 
remarkable when we realize that throughout a great part of the 
Middle Ages and up to a late date in the eighteenth century the 
waterway was actually a highway of traffic. 

The river was not merely a channel for goods traffic, but was 
the gentlemanly route from east to west. The private carriage 
of a nobleman was in former days a sumptuous barge ; the cab 
of the middle classes was a waterman's boat ; so that there was 

1 It will be observed that the projects set forth in the following article are not 
in close accord with certain other intentions of the Society as set forth here and elsewhere. 
In fact, the proposals of the writer are rather parallel to than allied with those of 
his colleagues, and the article is published as exhibiting a line of thought which is in some 
respects independent. — Ed. 

127 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

no visible reason why Surrey land should have been more meanly 
occupied than the land of Middlesex. One might as well expect 
to find in modern London clubs on one side of Pall Mall and fried- 
fish shops on the other. 

It was as easy for these old-time wayfarers to land on one 
side as on the other ; and the only explanation one can offer is 
that, as the necessity for town expansion in the past was not 
what it is to-day, the pre-existence of the City and of Westminster 
on the left bank perpetuated the neglect of the semi-rural right- 
hand shore. 

The prevalence of the Thames as a waterway gradually lapsed 
after the Great Fire. This change of habit on the part of London 
travellers was largely due to the improvement of the City's streets 
when rebuilt ; for at least one of the reasons for the frequent use 
of the river was the squalor of the byways and narrow streets of 
the town. 

But it still remains a subject for amazement that, after London 
Bridge was supplemented by the bridges of Waterloo, Westminster, 
Southwark and Blackfriars, the avoidance of the Surrey shore as 
an integral part of the building land of Central London still con- 
tinued and continues still. I expect that the tidying-up of the 
Middlesex side by the formation of the Embankment, contrasting 
as it did with the primitive wharfage still occupying the Surrey 
frontage, had something to do with emphasizing the prejudice against 
Surrey as building land. Surrey seen side by side with the smartness 
of Middlesex sank in its shabbiness into the role of the poor relation. 
Certain it is that when modern building did begin to nourish in 
the Borough regions it took the form, as in Southwark, of warehouses 
and gloomy business establishments to which the name of archi- 
tecture may enthusiastically be denied. 

It will be noticed that this article is headed the " Surrey Side," 
not the " South Side," and I have so named it with a purpose. I 
want to emphasize the fact that this Surrey territory is very in- 
timately and integrally connected with the heart of London, and I 
also want to point out what is so often forgotten, that Westminster 
Bridge, in crossing from Westminster to the opposite bank, does 
not proceed southward, but absolutely due east. It would astonish 
many Londoners to be told that the square mile of which the western 
side runs from Drury Lane to the House of Lords and which has 

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THE SURREY SIDE 

its north-east angle in St. Paul's Churchyard contains more of 
Surrey than of Middlesex. 

The importance of this (neglected) proximity of Southwark to 
London and of the fact that it is so encircled by the bend of the 
river between London Bridge and Lambeth is very great. It has 
a forcible bearing upon the solution of various London problems, 
and it is necessary that it should be taken very seriously into account. 
In this connection it is well to give emphasis to certain considerations 
which can easily be overlooked but cannot possibly be denied. 

1. The shortest way from Westminster to London Bridge lies 
through the Surrey district. 

2. The long neglect of Surrey as desirable building land for 
other than comparatively mean commercial buildings has resulted 
in the fact that we have within a mile or so of the Bank of England 
on the south side land much cheaper than that which can be found 
within three or four miles of the same spot on the Middlesex shore. 

3. Whether we pay any attention to the development of the 
Surrey side or not, the Surrey side will be developed. The arrival 
in Lambeth of the new buildings of the London County Council 
alone assures the improvement of the meanly occupied sites in its 
immediate neighbourhood ; and it seems essential to those who 
love London that such development should be watched and guided. 
Some people say, " Why envisage large schemes which will involve 
large expenditure ? " The answer is that the large expenditure 
will inevitably come, and the important point which we have at 
heart is to see that that large expenditure is made subservient to 
some well-ordered plan. 

4. The shore of the Thames is occupied almost throughout 
the region here discovered by small or comparatively small wharves. 
Their appearance is undoubtedly picturesque. In some cases their 
picturesqueness is rather squalid. In other cases it is obvious that 
the beauty is due to a mixture of neglect and decay, which, however 
greatly one may admire it, cannot possibly be made permanent. 
It may, in fact, if not guarded, guided and protected, give place 
to the shameless inelegance which casts a gloom over Thames Street. 
It is understood that these properties are less moribund than they 
appear. 

5. Apart from building problems, London is afflicted with 
traffic problems. The improvement of free locomotion in east and 

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LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

west direction has for scores of years been one of the most urgent 
and difficult of public duties. It has been constantly hampered 
and thwarted by the great cost of interfering with the buildings 
or purchasing the land on the north side of the Thames. The 
Surrey side offers splendid opportunities for effecting at less cost, 
and sometimes with greater directness, those improvements which 
on the City and Westminster side seem almost unattainable. 

If I venture here to offer some suggestions of a practical and 
constructive nature for the carrying out of definite schemes, I do 
not do so altogether with the presumption of an individual agitator. 
It was my privilege to act for many months before the war 
as chairman of a committee of The London Society which not only 
had these problems very much at heart, but gave to them a con- 
centrated attention which was all the more acute because almost 
every member of that committee contributed his own views and 
his own personal investigations of the facts and probabilities. The 
suggestions, therefore, which I shall offer are largely based upon 
the conclusions of that committee, though I do not claim that they 
would father all I may have to say. 

The problem can be divided into the foreshore question, the 
question of bridges, the question of traffic generally on the Surrey 
side, and the larger question of the development of the Surrey land 
as sites for important buildings. All these aspects of the case inter- 
lock with one another ; and, though I shall endeavour to make use 
of this division of the subject as a convenient method of handling, 
it will be found impossible to deal exclusively with any one heading 
without constant reference to and introduction of the others. 

To start, then, with the shore problem. It was surmised by 
some of my colleagues that no great harm would be done to the 
River Thames or to its business as a waterway if the stream were 
narrowed along the Surrey bend by throwing the shore forward. 
In other words, the advocates of a roadway embankment along that 
shore suggested with some confidence that for a considerable portion 
of its length the intended embankment might be constructed not 
within the lines of the present shore but right out upon the mud- 
bank. Inquiries were made in an authoritative quarter on the 
question whether such an encroachment would be likely to result 
in the formation of a new mud-bank outside this new embankment. 
A most reassuring answer was received, and it therefore became 

130 

I 




H 

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PS Q 



THE SURREY SIDE 

possible to make schemes for planning an embankment roadway 
actually clear of the existing wharf frontage. This opened up a 
new idea. If it is uncertain whether these wharves can be given 
up, why not retain their waterside privileges by the expedient of 
letting the water remain in spite of the embankment roadway ? 
This gave rise to the idea of the so-called lagoon-dock — an enclosed 
stretch of water bounded on the Thames side by the embankment 
roadway and on the shore side by warehouses. We contemplate 
naturally a rebuilding of the places of business, whose frontages, 
running down sheer into the water, might become a feature as 
beautiful in their modern bravery as their predecessors are in the 
garment of decay. It was realized, of course, that the gradients 
of the embankment would have to be so contrived that at one or 
more points barges and boats could pass under the roadway into 
the lagoon, and also that there would have to be free inlet and outlet 
for the tidal waters to pass through and scour the channel. It is 
conceivable that if these new warehouses were adroitly disposed, 
with their frontages recessed at intervals to allow space for large 
basins or inlets, there would result not merely a great increase of 
wharfage space but also a great scope for attractive design in the 
facades. London has always hitherto been ashamed of its wharves. 
Let us have here some wharves that know no shame. 

Of course, a question at once arises as to the extent of the 
embankment and its level. It may be taken for granted that it 
will have to pass under Waterloo Bridge, using as a land arch what 
is at present the first water arch on the Surrey side. 

This settles one point in connection with the levels, and it 
accords well with the views of a good many people on the subject 
of the new Charing Cross Bridge. (At this date there is, I hope, 
no harm in speaking of the abolition of the railway bridge and the 
establishment of a road bridge as blessings which the future is sure 
to bring.) The advocates of this new bridge and the various designers 
of its approaches have divided themselves into two schools — the 
high-level school and the low-level school. I am assuming in this 
article that the low-level enthusiasts have their way and that the 
new bridge will start from the Middlesex shore at the level (slightly 
modified) of the junction between Northumberland Avenue and the 
Victoria Embankment, and that it will expect a welcome from an 
embankment of similar level on the Surrey side. So far so good. 

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LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

Up-stream the new embankment cannot proceed farther than the 
new County Hall, because the London County Council has 
appropriated the shore opposite its new home. So the embank- 
ment must terminate there. I suggest it should end in a fair- 
sized square or " Place," flanked by the (almost) north elevation 
of the County Hall. Its termination at the eastern end is 
open to greater doubt. We have to face the question whether 
the embankment road should pass under an arch of Black- 
friars (road) bridge, just as it would pass under Waterloo Bridge. 
Blackfriars Bridge, it is true, is nominally a low-level bridge, 
insomuch as it starts from roadway level at the end of the 
Victoria Embankment. But it stands high in relation to the land 
at the Surrey end, and the way through could probably be managed 
if the roadway be at this point reduced in width. So I have con- 
tented myself by forming a comparatively narrow commercial quay 
or wharf road from Blackfriars eastward, and have allowed the main 
road to curve itself southward so as to become a continuation of 
South wark Street. Southwark Street is unredeemably hideous ; but 
a life of new traffic might put new heart into it. Some day, who 
knows, some of its buildings may become obsolete, and at least 
they can never be rebuilt in the horrible period that gave them 
shameful birth. 

The bridges question is mainly the question of the new Charing 
Cross Bridge. But there are two other points to consider. If any 
new road bridges are ever brought into being, they will probably 
be the Temple Bridge and the St. Paul's Bridge. The other, a 
more important point, relates to railway bridges. Charing Cross 
railway bridge will, as we all hope and believe, disappear. Some 
of us go the length of depending on the removal not only of Black- 
friars railway bridge, but also of that horrible iron approach to 
Cannon Street Station. For Cannon Street Station must also in 
the long run go. Of this more hereafter. 

And now we come to the problem of traffic on the Surrey side. 
In this division of the subject I am bold enough to deal with rail- 
ways as well as roads, and what I am about to say will be at variance 
with the views of many of my friends in The London Society ; at 
variance also with opinions suggested in this book. I expect that 
there will be no harm in this divergence of outlook. It may be 
said in general criticism of the Lambeth-Southwark-Borough 

132 



THE SURREY SIDE 

region that what it needs in the way of traffic facilities is more 
convenient through-routes. The curve of the river naturally makes 
the lines of the bridges converge like the radii of a circle. The main 
roads coming in from the south similarly converge, and convergence 
of this kind, which gives no great trouble in a small town with a 
moderate business, becomes intolerable in a large town of supreme 
industry. The planning of the Surrey region having been left largely 
to chance, no effort has in the past been made to counteract this 
nuisance. In fact, it has been accentuated and concentrated rather 
than combated. The roads are drawn together at two foci, the 
Elephant and St. George's Circus. Thus the main traffic from the 
south to London is quite unnecessarily brought into a double con- 
gestion before it is permitted to select the bridge which will best 
serve on its way into London. And there is a worse trouble still. 
The Surrey territory should from its position and shape form a 
convenient link between Westminster and the City, but the provision 
of any good east to west road across this tract of land has always 
been postponed or ignored. The present is the time at which we 
ought to consider how these inconveniences and anomalies can be 
remedied. 

Let us go back for a moment to the Charing Cross Bridge scheme. 
What is the great road across that bridge to lead triumphantly up 
to ? A chorus of voices cries : " Why, straight to the new Charing 
Cross Station, of course." I think we have been a little too ready 
to assume the indisputable desirability of this arrangement and 
of the kindred assumption that the new station must be as close 
as possible to Waterloo. 

A moment's thought will show that if a single central station 
in the centre of London is an impossibility — and I for one am 
entirely satisfied that it is — there is everything to be said for the 
plea that all the great termini should be kept at a convenient and 
fairly uniform distance from the centre. Also, it is obvious that 
there are advantages in keeping these termini reasonably distant 
from one another. A traveller passing through London may regret 
that King's Cross is not close to Waterloo, but much less regret is 
felt at the present separation of Waterloo from Charing Cross. 
-Two big termini near together hamper one another, because the 
streams of road traffic necessary to each station converge upon and 
mingle with one another. I suggest, therefore, that there is more to 

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LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

be lost than gained by making the new Charing Cross terminus sit in 
the lap of Waterloo. Why should it not occupy that triangle of 
ground (with additions) which is already rendered desolate by rail- 
way arches ? I refer to the spot just east of the Blackfriars Road 
through which runs Gravel Lane. Once grant the practicability of 
this and there becomes possible a new prospect and a new career 
of usefulness for the great new street which is to cross our river 
by the great new bridge. A " straight-edge " and a map will show 
that the line of axis already assumed, viz. the centre line of North- 
umberland Avenue, is heading for the Church of St. George, which 
stands with a good deal of quiet majesty at the end of Borough 
High Street, just at the point where that thoroughfare is joined by 
Great Dover Street and Long Lane. Let us boldly take our great 
street to that point and see what we gain. 

In the first place, we have secured an easy connection for the 
new great station with both the City and the West End. 1 It will 
by means of this street get a straight run to Westminster and the 
West End, and will also have an easy approach to London Bridge (as 
well as a ready use of Blackfriars Bridge, Southwark Bridge, and, 
if it ever comes, St. Paul's Bridge). Secondly, we shall be planting 
hope and the chance of prosperity in the very heart of a derelict 
region which has never yet enjoyed the opportunities which its 
close proximity to London proper deserves. This great avenue 
would have a straight course of exactly a mile and a half between 
Trafalgar Square and the Borough. It would be more or less parallel 
to the course of the street variously known as Holborn, Holborn 
Viaduct, Newgate Street and Cheapside, and would be at the same 
average distance from the river, viz. between a quarter and a third 
of a mile. The new Charing Cross Station would stand on its north 
side roughly half-way between London Bridge Station and Waterloo. 
London Bridge Station would probably, on the completion of the 
new station, die of jealousy and chagrin. If it did not, it would 
sooner or later succumb to the forces of its own manifest incon- 
venience and of natural decay. 

That it should either be abolished or rebuilt is an essential of 
decency. Its squalor is quite intolerable. 

1 Earlier writings of mine have advocated a great eastward road from Westminster 
Bridge. Such a road is shown on the Development Plan of The London Society. The 
road I now propose is perhaps nobler and more direct. 

134 



THE SURREY SIDE 

Of course, it will be understood that I am contemplating the 
entire removal of Blackfriars Railway Bridge. I urge this chiefly 
because of its supreme ugliness. I urge it also because I believe 
that the space occupied by Holborn Viaduct Station and the stations 
of St. Paul's and Ludgate Hill could be far more profitably occupied. 
The misuse of the land along the east side of New Bridge Street is 
evident to all. 

Against the removal of this cross-river railway connection will 
be urged the value of the through goods traffic carried by this bridge 
and the usefulness of the three above-mentioned stations to passengers. 
The answer is that the through goods traffic can be much better 
arranged by an underwater connection in the future, and that the 
kind of passenger traffic catered for by these three stations had 
much better be conveyed by the underground electric system, which 
will no doubt in the near future be vastly extended. 

Does it occur to anyone that the hideous overcrowding of the 
tube railways now prevailing is not an argument against these means 
of transit but an overwhelming proof of the success of the tube 
system and of the urgent necessity for its development ? 

And what about Cannon Street Station with its bridge ? I 
have been told that the continued existence of these two appliances 
is essential, that the healthy life and activity of London depends 
upon them. Do they ? One thing is certain, that they will some 
day need reconstruction. Will anybody, when that day comes, 
think the reconstruction worth the expense ? I doubt it. Yet 
another thing is certain. The centre of gravity of London is going 
to shift southward. I do not suggest that the heart of London 
will cross the water, but I do suggest and prophesy that the occu- 
pation of Surrey land by official, Imperial, national and influential 
tenants is sure to come and to come quickly. That is one of the 
reasons for which I urge that the great new road should carve its 
way right through the very heart of this promised land. It is new 
to us, but it is ancient. The road will be for a time a vox clamantis 
in deserto. But the voice will not cry for long. The desert will 
soon blossom. 

To go back from these aspirations to a little bit of detail. It 
is of course a fact that one of the lines of rail that join up in the 
triangle by Blackfriars Road (which I am dedicating to the new 
station) is the London, Chatham and Dover line coming northward 

135 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

through Camberwell and Walworth. It crosses over the South- 
Eastern main line within the triangle. I see no reason why it 
should not be provided for within the buildings of the new station 
by a small terminus about the size of Holborn Viaduct Station, built 
transversely at a higher level than the main terminus and with 
its rails and platforms at right angles to the main platforms of the 
station. In any case, the main platforms of this station will be 
at a higher level than the road entrance to the station, and there 
will essentially and necessarily be lifts for passengers and luggage. 
Our new station will in fact be like the station on the Quai d'Orsay 
in Paris, but reversed, i.e. the trains will be upstairs instead of 
downstairs. 

It will, I hope, be understood that I involve none of my colleagues 
in The London Society in the suggestion that the great new road 
should travel on to the Borough. The embankment road and the 
enclosed dock and basin between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars 
Bridge are, however, distinctly schemes backed by the members 
of The London Society. So also is the suggestion that the new 
bridge should have its axis on the line of Northumberland Avenue 
and that it should be a low-level bridge. But this last statement 
must be made with the utmost reservation, for the division of healthy 
opinion within the Society (and, indeed, within the South Side Com- 
mittee) on this subject has been very equally balanced. Excellent 
schemes and excellent arguments have been put forward to favour 
the idea that the approaches to the new bridge should start 
on the Middlesex side from the level of the Strand, and that the 
bridge itself, maintained at a high level, should pass over the 
embankment roads on both sides of the river, and thus be better 
fitted to join the new railway station at the level of its present 
permanent way. 

I have just touched upon the subjects of the suggested Temple 
and St. Paul's Bridges. Against the latter the criticism has been 
uttered that its Surrey-side approaches were not so arranged as to 
make it useful to the full. There are two essential points about 
this bridge. It must align directly on the Dome of St. Paul's and 
it must cross the Thames (any bridge must) at something reasonably 
like right angles. If these points are kept in mind it will be found 
that the main road to the bridge could join Southwark Street at a 
point close to my site for the new Charing Cross Station. But there 

136 



THE SURREY SIDE 

are some level difficulties, and I am not sure that the bridge is 
really wanted. 

The Temple Bridge would be necessarily a communication from 
one embankment level to the other. At the time (1905) when the 
irresponsible dreamers of the Traffic Commission contemplated a 
continuation southward of Gray's Inn Road (which would have 
crashed through Staple Inn, the Patent Office, the Record Office 
and the Temple) there would have been something to say for a 
Temple Bridge as a means of through communication north and 
south. As matters now stand, the most likely use for a bridge in 
that position would be to provide cross-river communication for 
passengers already on the Victoria Embankment, who cannot cross 
Waterloo Bridge without working back to the higher ground of 
the Strand. For such purposes a bridge there would be of value, 
specially since the new south embankment by its connection with 
Southwark Street and with the great new road is in easy access 
to various Surrey-side outlets. 

One might suggest in this connection the return of Temple 
Bar from its seclusion in Theobald's Park to the place assigned for 
it in my late father's perspective drawing for the Law Courts. It 
would stand well in the Temple Gardens facing down the new 
bridge. 1 

I have left to the last the subject of the development of the 
Surrey land as sites for important public and business buildings, 
only to find that I have already dealt with it by inference. Of the 
demand for such land, the bold step of the London County Council 
in choosing their new site is a proof already in the past. As to the 
future, one can only say that the indications derived from common 
sense have already been fortified by more than one semi-authentic 
hint from responsible quarters that even the Government will not 
shrink from placing on that shore buildings of greater importance 
and value than the Stationery Office (off which I sadly fear my road 
scheme has chipped a corner). 

The great new road — by far the finest thoroughfare in London 
— would be a worthy site for buildings of the noblest architecture 
and the most important type. Our new phase of Government, 
which tends to a multiplication of Departments, might open the 

1 Since this was written the prospect of such a removal of Temple Bar has come 
almost into visibility. 

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LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

proceedings by the establishment there of a second Whitehall, and 
the prestige thus given to a quarter of a mile of the new thorough- 
fare would ensure its value as frontage for the remainder of its course. 
Little by little the adjoining streets would share in the prestige, and 
the course of fifty years would find London the happier, the busier, 
the richer and the more beautiful by the simple discovery and 
development of property which she has long owned but never yet 
enjoyed. 



138 



CENTRAL LONDON 

PROFESSOR ADSHEAD, F.R.I.B.A. 



CHAPTER IX 

CENTRAL LONDON 

Central London is an area rich in history and tradition. It is 
an area where innovation and preservation must clash. Less mag- 
nificent than Paris and less ambitious than Vienna, it nevertheless 
possesses irresistible attractions which are entirely its own. It is 
unapproachable in the picturesque assembling of its independent 
groupings, it is great in the scale of its river, and it is unique in the 
colour of its Portland stone. 

To say that London as we see it to-day is an expression of 
our times is but partially true, for whilst amongst the conflicting 
interests of this great congeries of things new and old there are 
innovations of which we are a little suspicious, and which with our 
inherited conservatism we accept only with reserve, at the same 
time London for the most part is an old city, out at elbows, worn 
threadbare and sadly behind the time. 

Science and invention always play havoc with old towns ; they 
are very cruel in their treatment of old walls. New forms of con- 
struction, street widenings to receive increased traffic and new build- 
ings erected for altogether new purposes are continually disturbing 
the repose and sedateness of old streets and squares. So that whilst 
improvement in London must mean innovation, it should be an 
innovation that is tempered with a respect for what is there. 

Perhaps it is as well that there exists a reverence amount- 
ing almost to a religious fanaticism for the preservation of open 
spaces and parks. Perhaps it is well that churches, unable to 
justify their continued existence as such, should be retained and 
preserved. Perhaps it is well that the Temple and Gray's Inn should 
zealously perpetuate their old traditions. These are some of the 
aspects of London to be reckoned with in adapting it to the require- 
ments of modern conditions. 

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LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

No factor exercises so important an influence in bringing about 
change as transport, and whilst the suburbs and the surrounding 
areas of towns are more directly affected than the centre, as the pivot 
of the movement the centre is also affected, though in a different 
way. The central area of London is at the present moment passing 
through a process of scarcely noticeable but at the same time 
stupendous change. Changes in cities are scarcely perceptible 
within the narrow limits of a day-to-day experience ; they are only 
noticeable in a comparison extending over decades, or in genera- 
tions in the lives of citizens who have brought them about. The 
last quarter of a century has seen in Central London the erection 
of popular restaurants, palatial hotels, boarding establishments, 
municipal housing schemes, Imperial offices and tubes. Half a cen- 
tury has seen London torn to shreds by a railway system that has 
annihilated a cultured prosperity, and which has bred miles and miles 
of forlorn streets and embanked segments of confused happenings. 
A whole century has seen London converted from the polite Georgian 
town of Thackeray into a monstrous unmanageable machine. 

But our march must be forward and not backward, and it is 
with adaptation, assimilation and conversion that we are to-day 
concerned. 

When Sir Christopher Wren made his plan for the rebuilding 
of London, the centre was the Royal Exchange, and whilst the 
Royal Exchange must still be regarded as the historic centre of 
London, another centre of increasing importance has developed in 
Trafalgar Square. 

Up to the end of last century London grew solidly, it pressed 
outwards as a solid body, and it was not until a suburban system 
of railways had become established, later to be supplemented by the 
tubes, that centralization became overtaken by decentralization. 
It overflowed more quickly than it filled. 

The founding of new suburbs, the conversion of these into 
satellite towns, and adaptation of old towns within a radius of 
60 miles from London into dormitories for the more restless, of the 
middle class are aspects of London's development that confront us 
most prominently. 

But this tendency towards decentralization, so conspicuously 
in operation in connection with the building of houses, is also to 
be noted in connection with the building of factories and business 

142 



CENTRAL LONDON 

premises, though to a less noticeable degree. The need for more 
ample space about factories, the saving that can be effected in rates, 
always provided that the sacrifice of convenience is not too great, 
has meant that this class of property is strongly attracted to 
outlying areas around. 

Central London is to-day no place of residence for the masses, 
nor is it a place for independent businesses and factories, but the 
kind of buildings that still flourish in Central London, and which 
will in the future monopolize or at any rate preponderate here, 
are hotels of all kinds, residential flats, big stores, head offices 
of important trading companies, public buildings of Imperial and 
national importance, restaurants, and shops for specialized wares. 
The demand for such buildings is ahead of the supply, and though 
rebuilding is continuous, nevertheless the change is not as rapid 
as it might be. 

London is the centre of Imperial commerce and finance, and 
their transactions have developed enormously during the last century. 
Every insurance company, every banking concern, every shipping 
combine and every important business must have a head office in 
Central London, and attendant upon these Imperial houses there 
is needed a host of service buildings and Imperial hotels. 

SUBURBAN TRANSPORT. 

Of the many works to be undertaken in improving London, 
none are more important than those relating to the consolidation 
and completion of the suburban railway system. It is not our 
concern to review the system as it penetrates the outer area : our 
interest is confined to its terminals, and to the way in which they 
set down their passengers here. The test of a perfect system should 
be that passengers travelling on a trunk line should, either before 
entering the terminal or at the terminal, be enabled to change into 
a tube system that will deposit them, say, within a couple of hundred 
yards of any position in the central area, and passengers travelling 
on a suburban system should enter the central tube system with- 
out the necessity of a change. Generally this very desirable 
combination of systems exists at present ; but there are gaps 
and important connections to be made. Perhaps one of the 
most obvious may be seen in the way in which the Victoria and 
London Bridge electrified system sets down its passengers at Victoria 

143 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

and London Bridge, leaving a most disconcerting connection to be 
made with the central tube system. Why could not this important 
line dive underground behind its present terminals and complete 
a circle via Victoria Street, Whitehall and the Strand ? There 
exists a similar defect in regard to the termination of the electrified 
South-Western system. It should descend behind Waterloo and, 
crossing the central area, should emerge beyond the City to com- 
plete another loop in the north-east. Similar improvements might 
be made in regard to the terminals of the suburban systems in 
the north. The diurnal journeyings of the suburban passenger 
should be as easy and comfortable as possible. Nothing retards 
suburban development so much as difficulties to be overcome in 
getting from office to house. Passengers resident in the gathering, 
grounds of an electrified railway are of the class who work long 
hours and can ill afford the time and energy necessitated by having 
to make changes, and who find it very distracting on arriving at a 
trunk terminus to have to push their way down long and crowded 
platforms, risk their lives in crossing station yards amidst a scrimmage 
of cabs, and ultimately have to enter a tube system through a maze 
of halls and passages ; or, depending upon the means of transport 
with which nature has provided them, have to walk long distances 
along crowded pavements or have to force their way on to a 
crowded bus. 

As mentioned, it is not within the scope of this article to do 
more than refer to suburban transit in so far as it is connected with 
what are distinctly central area transit systems. Let us therefore 
turn our attention to the central tube system, and consider in 
what way this could be improved. It needs improving both in 
regard to the design of its stations, the duplication of its lines, 
the construction of entirely new ones, and also in respect of its 
ventilation. 

Ventilation is mentioned because the ultimate success of all 
underground workings must, when the competitive systems of over- 
head and underground travel are fully developed, be seriously handi- 
capped unless greater attention is paid to it. But perhaps the 
greatest defect in the present tube system is to be seen in the con- 
fused planning of the stations. Notwithstanding the excellence 
and smooth working of the lifts, there are labyrinths of passages 
to be traversed, staircases to be ascended, and twistings and wander- 

144 



CENTRAL LONDON 

ings to be negotiated that are altogether so irksome and confusing 
as in many cases to completely discount the advantages otherwise 
obtained. It is obvious that in many cases the confusion referred 
to has been the result of adding new systems to old, rendering com- 
plicated junctions almost unavoidable. But much of the trouble 
exists, not at junctions, but at ordinary roadside stations. It could 
probably have been avoided had the lines been laid deep enough 
to take them under the buildings, and had it not been a condition 
that they be laid under the roads. Had they been laid directly 
under the stations, passengers might have entered the platforms 
direct from the lifts, an arrangement which so far as we are aware 
exists only at the Bank. 

The separation of suburban trains from trunk trains would 
help enormously to ease the confusion that is at present seen at 
almost all our great terminals. We have only quite recently seen 
the reconstruction of Victoria and Waterloo, and it is a thousand 
pities that drastic alterations to these two stations were not carried 
out simultaneously with a sinking underground of the suburban 
system. But apart from this, and excellent as these two stations 
in many respects now are, each suffers from the lack of an ample, 
dignified, and direct approach. The construction of a new bridge 
for vehicular traffic at Charing Cross will assist in meeting the diffi- 
culty at Waterloo, but Victoria Station will never have a satisfactory 
approach until all the buildings standing aboveground on that 
obstructive island site which faces it are removed. 

It should be obvious to everyone that, with the electrification 
of all railways, with the increased spending power of the lower classes, 
with the demand for hotels and the general recuperation of the 
nation, we are about to see an enormous increase in travelling, a 
condition of things that urgently calls for the modernizing of all 
our stations. We are slow to perceive that the old train sheds that 
did service for our grandfathers on their annual visit into the 
country are as out of date to-day as are the horse-buses and 
growlers that conveyed them and their carpet-bags from the 
stations to their homes. 

Beneath every great terminal should be an underground non- 
terminal station through which the suburban passenger train should 
pass as it approaches and enters the central system of tubes. From 
immense waiting halls outside the trunk terminals giant staircases 

145 k 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

or sloping ways should provide a direct connection with the plat- 
forms of the suburban trains. 

New York has in quite recent years constructed stations on 
these lines. 

But better approaches and connections are not the only 
requirement. The ill-ventilated and crowded bars described as 
first-class refreshment-rooms need converting into tea-rooms, dining- 
rooms and waiting-saloons, and there should be writing- rooms, 
bath-rooms and, of course, hotels. All these things are gradually 
coming, and in a modest way are to be seen at Victoria and Waterloo. 

With the nationalization of the railways and a bold programme 
of reconstruction, Euston, St. Pancras and King's Cross might with 
immense advantage be reconstructed and combined to make a 
terminus worthy to be described as the entrance to London from the 
North. Failing a scheme so drastic, King's Cross should be swept 
away, and we should have a reconstructed St. Pancras, consisting 
of a duplication of the present station on its eastern side, a scheme 
that amongst other things would involve a deviation in the St. 
Pancras Road. 

The new Euston Station, as the main entrance to London from 
the North, would need an adequate approach, a processional way. 
Gower Street and Southampton Row are very well as bus routes 
and as short-cuts for tradesmen's vans, but their scale is entirely 
inadequate as main approaches into London. Our northern 
democracy must be inspired as it descends upon its capital, the 
largest city in the world and the capital of the Empire. 

Such a reconstruction of Euston and of lands abutting upon its 
avenue of approach should be planned forthwith, involving, as it 
certainly should, most of the property situate between Gower 
Street and Woburn Place. The British Museum would stand on 
an island site, and would, on entering London, be the first great 
building towards which the visitor would direct his way. Incidentally 
it typifies the Empire, and thence the line of route would fork in 
a south-easterly direction towards Kingsway, and in a south-westerly 
direction towards Charing Cross and Whitehall. 

Flanking this station approach would be the new University 
buildings and hotels of all kinds for democracy's vast crowds, 
who in the near future will descend upon London in increasing 
frequency from the North. 

146 




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a aj 



CENTRAL LONDON 

And now let us turn from the passenger train entrance into 
London to its goods entrance, and let us consider in what way im- 
provements could be effected in regard to the conveyance of goods 
from the docks. Many proposals have been made for the develop- 
ment of a dock area between Tilbury and the Royal Victoria and 
Albert Docks, and in connection therewith for the construction of 
a great dock road from Tilbury to the Tower. 

In so far as the development of the docks is concerned, this 
again is outside the scope of our inquiry, but the entrance to London 
from the Royal Victoria and Albert Docks is certainly a problem 
affecting the central area. Many schemes have been put forward 
for drastically dealing with the S-shaped mouth of the Lea. To 
be penny wise is to be pound foolish here. There must be a direct 
road from the Silvertown dock area to East India Dock Road. 
Once this connection has been made, direct access to London is pro- 
vided along Commercial Road. But a vast traffic passes along 
Cable Street and St. George's Road, and it is to relieve these two 
streets of warehouses that further improvements have been pro- 
posed. Among others, it has been suggested that Fenchurch Street 
Station and the dock railway be scrapped, and that in place 
thereof there be constructed a great traffic road. The widening of 
Cable Street has been considered, and proposals have been made 
for the entire reconstruction of St. George's Road. 

In considering the relative advantages of these different schemes, 
we are perhaps apt to forget that a controlling factor in the distribu- 
tion and collection of goods to and from the docks is the position 
of the warehouses. We must remember that by far the greatest 
bulk of the goods brought into the London Docks is transferred 
therefrom by barges to warehouses situated on various parts of the 
river and by rail to various towns in England, and that, so far as 
London is concerned, the economic delivery and collection of goods 
is as much a question of having conveniently situated warehouses 
as it is of having accessible roads. 

London's ships and docks have been brought up to date in 
advance of her warehouses, and as tonnage increases, it is doubtful 
if an altered use ought not to be made of the small upper river 
warehouses and of the smaller docks. It seems rather ridiculous 
to think that merchandise delivered at the Port of London by 
titanic steamers down river should be transmitted by barge or 

147 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

wagon to the old up-river warehouses, many of which are 
worn out, out of date, and only accessible by narrow and 
congested roads. Combined with a dock road improvement 
scheme there is the problem of warehouses and smaller docks. 
The solution of the question would seem to depend very largely 
upon the erection of more warehouses and cold stores of the 
most modern type in the immediate vicinity of the latest docks. 
From thence goods could be transferred by-road or rail direct to 
the retail store. If the question were approached on some such 
broadened lines, it might be found that the problem of widening 
and improving Cable Street and St. George's Street would need 
to be undertaken quite differently. It might be that the parallel 
roads, Cable Street and St. George's Street, would be better 
dispensed with, and instead there be constructed direct right-angle 
approaches to Commercial Road. 

Even to enumerate all the belated, disjointed, obstructive, 
neglected and impoverished areas of London which are crying out 
for improvement would fill the pages of many volumes. One can 
only refer to the more important, and of these, those relating to the 
embellishment and beautification of the river are perhaps the most 
striking. In an industrial age, and when the discovery of rapid 
locomotion had quite upset the mental balance of the nation, hideous 
railway bridges were allowed to span the river, obstructing traffic 
by water and completely obliterating every river view. The need 
for central terminals has completely collapsed with the coming 
of the tube railways, with a separation of suburban from trunk 
systems and with the introduction of the rapid taxi-cab. No im- 
provements in Central London are more urgently needed than those 
affecting the Thames bridges and the river. A proposal to construct 
a south-side embankment is elsewhere dealt with, as also is that for 
removing altogether from the north side Cannon Street and Charing 
Cross stations. The construction of a new Charing Cross vehicular 
bridge is an undertaking that we may reasonably expect to be brought 
about at a comparatively early date, and its two approaches are 
so situated in their relation to important traffic centres that they will 
afford magnificent opportunities for improvements of a minor kind. 
The different proposals that have already been made for dealing 
with the intricacies of this problem, both from the engineering and 
architectural aspects, are very numerous, and are too well known 

148 



CENTRAL LONDON 

to need describing here. Briefly, it may be stated that they fall 
under two categories — those which like Westminster Bridge, as it 
were, spring from the Embankment, and those which like Waterloo 
take the level of the Strand. Whatever may be said for the direct- 
ness of the low-level proposal, there is no doubt a high-level bridge 
would be more dignified and would offer opportunities for fine 
approaches and new building sites altogether impossible in the 
case of the bridge that would be approached off a hump in the 
Embankment and a down-hill approach along Northumberland 
Avenue. 

Very well known also are proposals for improving that un- 
manageable triangle Hyde Park Corner, with its malformations, 
its uncontrollable crossings, its straggling islands and its scattered 
trees. But Hyde Park Corner is merely one of the incidental details 
that make up London of last century, sorely cut about in later days. 
It is inadvisable to improve street corners by a repeated application 
of the spokeshave and to decorate open spaces by sowing them with 
plane-trees as if they were grass seed to be cast wherever there 
was a bare spot of clay. Yet these are the methods that have 
been resorted to in order to keep Hyde Park Corner what may 
vulgarly be described as a going concern. 

Since Burton designed the entrances to Hyde Park and the 
beautiful Constitutional Hill Arch, Hyde Park Corner has gradually 
been spoiled. 

Of road improvements, none is more urgently needed than that 
involving the construction of a relief road to Cheapside. A new 
thoroughfare from St. Martin's-le-Grand to Moorgate Street, and 
so on to Liverpool Street, would be the means of creating sites for 
immense blocks of offices that are so urgently needed in the City. 
This would indeed be a commercial venture of a very safe kind. 

Marylebone Road must of necessity have direct access to the 
proposed Western Avenue, and Pentonville Road must be the 
commencement of a new avenue eastward. 

But a word on road- widening generally, the most important of 
every kind of improvement that has exercised the minds of authori- 
ties since the County Council took the problems of Central London 
in hand. The road widening of business thoroughfares means rebuild- 
ing to an enhanced scale. The scale of London needs increasing if 
the business of its vastly increased population is conveniently to be 

149 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

transacted. Since the construction of Kingsway 80 feet seems to 
have come to be considered the right width for a main thoroughfare, 
but unfortunately this is also the height set for the main cornice. 
Streets of this proportion are neither narrow nor wide ; they are 
simply nondescript and uninteresting. Holborn and Oxford Street 
should be as wide as Whitehall ; by a drastic order they should be 
widened on the south side. They should be increased to 150 feet. 
One trembles even at the thought of the cost and inconvenience 
that would be incurred were such an order insisted upon. Yet nothing 
less will suffice if we are to do justice to posterity, who will criticize 
our temerity in the light of the opportunities for rebuilding that we 
now enjoy. In the ancient cities of Greco-Roman Asia Minor the 
foot pavements of the main streets were sheltered under immense 
arcades. In some of our shopping streets this might be attempted 
in London. Such a street could well be constructed between Bond 
Street and Regent Street as a continuation of Grafton Street, or 
why not rebuild the north side of Piccadilly with an arcade 20 feet 
wide and 30 feet high ? 

And finally, a word on slum clearance and flat building. It 
has not yet been shown that it is expedient to remove all the 
residential population from the central area, or if expedient, that 
it would be possible to do so. There are the interstices between 
the big thoroughfares to be filled in, and whilst there are work- 
shops, garages, inoffensive factories and warehouses which will 
always require to be packed in behind the more imposing blocks 
that flank main streets, there should still be room for blocks of 
three-story flats for the working-class population that works and 
desires to live in town. 

These three-story buildings might be built around enclosed 
squares, measuring say 150 feet across. Entrances to tenements 
would be from this courtyard, which would be laid out as a 
garden adorned with flowers, and from which the splash of a 
fountain would be music in the hot summer weather. 

We have said that London is for the most part worn out 
and decayed, but that rebuilding is constantly proceeding. There 
are times when this constant process of rebuilding is accelerated 
and when rebuilding assumes the proportions of schemes of recon- 
struction. We are on the threshold of such a time just now. The 
hundred-year leases that followed Waterloo are expiring, and we 

150 



CENTRAL LONDON 

are at the termination of a World War. Never since the Great 
Fire has so unique an opportunity occurred for carrying out schemes 
of reconstruction on a colossal scale. Let us see that we seize our 
opportunities, and accept our responsibilities, in a way worthy of 
so great an occasion. London can no longer be regarded as a place 
where may be perpetrated indiscriminate building adventure. It 
must no longer be the vestment of millions upon which may be sewn 
patches of any material and in any kind of colour. No longer must 
it typify the clashing of interests and the irresolution of masses. 
Our duty to posterity is to weld these together and make London 
an harmonious whole. 



151 



THE PORT OF LONDON 

THE VISCOUNT DEVONPORT, P.C. 



CHAPTER X 
THE PORT OF LONDON 

The origin of London has not been penetrated by the historian. 
One of the oldest, Geoffrey of Monmouth, ascribed the founding 
of the city to Brutus, who called it New Troy, but the earliest 
authentic record is that of Tacitus, who, writing in a.d. 61, described 
London as a place " copia negotiatorum et commeatuum maxime 
celebre." 

Its position 60 miles inland at the head of navigation of a deep 
tidal river gave to it commanding advantages as a centre of 
distribution. 

To the end of the eighteenth century its shipping trade was 
carried on either at moorings in the stream by the aid of barges 
and lighters or at wharves or quays constructed on the riverside. 

At that period the legal quays and sufferance wharves where 
dutiable goods might be unloaded were filled to overflowing. There 
were no enclosed docks with warehouses where valuable cargoes 
might be stored in security. 

The only existing docks at this time were the Howland Dock 
at Rotherhithe, constructed in 1694, and the Brunswick Dock at 
Blackwall, which dated from 1790. These, of small capacity and 
limited scope, were used for fitting out vessels and had no facilities 
for dealing with cargo. 

Losses by theft and damage became so increasingly serious, 
both to merchants and to the Revenue, that at length public opinion 
was aroused in the City of London, and a scheme was promoted and 
the money guaranteed by the leading merchants for constructing 
enclosed docks where these disabilities would be overcome. As a 
result a Bill was passed by Parliament in 1799 authorizing the 
construction of the West India Docks, the first of the modern dock 

155 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

system as we have it to-day. Pitt and his Cabinet were present 
on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone in 1800, and 
the docks were completed and opened to shipping in 1802. 

So successful was this new venture that what to-day we should 
describe as a " boom " in dock creating enterprises ensued, and 
further dock schemes in the Port were promoted and sanctioned 
by Parliament at short intervals, viz. : 



1800 


London Dock 


1801 


Surrey Dock 


1803 


East India Dock 


1810 


Commercial Dock (Surrey) 


1825 


St. Katharine Dock 


1850 


Royal Victoria Dock 


1864 


. . Millwall Dock 


1875 


Royal Albert Dock 


1882 


. . Tilbury Dock 



The era of prosperity with these various new undertakings 
reached its zenith in the latter half of the last century, and the fat 
days were followed by extremely lean ones. For some years a 
growing dissatisfaction with the administration of the dock systems 
of the Port by private companies became manifest. Consequently, 
Parliament in 1900 appointed a Royal Commission to investigate 
and report upon the condition of the Port generally and the measures 
necessary for its betterment. The Commission reported in favour 
of unification and control of all these private undertakings by a 
public authority. In 1908 a Government Bill giving effect to the 
Royal Commission's recommendations was introduced by Mr. Lloyd 
George, then President of the Board of Trade, with whom I was 
associated as Parliamentary Secretary, creating the Port of London 
Authority " for the purpose of administering, preserving and improving 
the Port." It was received with general approbation and became 
law that year. 

The Port of London Authority consists of the Chairman, Vice- 
Chairman, ten Members appointed by certain Public Departments 
and Bodies, seventeen Members elected by payers of dues and 
other Port interests, and one by wharfingers. The Members of 
the Authority retire every three years, but are eligible for reappoint- 
ment or re-election. 

156 




DREDGING A WATERWAY FOR A NEW DOCK 




A CUNARD LINER IX THE DOCKS. 



THE PORT OF LONDON 

The docks transferred to the Authority are shown in the 
following table, with the areas, including land acquired since : 







Area in Acres. 


Miles below London 

Bridge by Water to 

Entrances. 




Water. 


Land. 


Total. 


St. Katharine 

London 

Surrey Commercial . . 

Millwall 

West India 

East India 

Royal Victoria 

Royal Albert 

Tilbury 




10 
35 
164 
35 
92 
31 
93 
87 
89 


13 
65 
216 
196 
149 
37 
183 
737 
545 


23 
100 
380 
231 
241 

68 
276 
824 
634 


i 
li 
3i 
3J 
6J 
«1 
7 

lOJ 

26 



The aggregate length of quay of these is over 30 miles, exclusive 
of the riverside accommodation. 

Early in 1911 the Authority adopted a comprehensive programme 
of Port improvements, appropriated into three categories, viz. : 

(1) A primary or urgent programme, embracing works necessary 

to be carried out without delay in order to give much 
needed increase of accommodation. 

(2) A secondary programme of such works deemed to be 

necessary to follow the first programme. 

(3) A third or contingent programme ready to meet the 

development of passenger and other traffic anticipated as 
the result of the improvements comprised in the first 
and second programmes. 

Following the adoption of the primary programme the various 
works were commenced, the most important being a new dock south 
of the Royal Albert Dock. 

Its water area is 65 acres, its length of quay 2\ miles, with 
jetties to accelerate the discharge of vessels with cargo for the quays 
and for overside delivery. 

The entrance lock is 800 feet long (capable of being extended 
to 910 feet by the aid of a floating caisson), 100 feet wide, depth 
of water on the sill 45 feet below T.H.W., with a dry dock 750 feet 

157 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

long and 100 feet wide. A short waterway connects this new dock 
with the Albert and Victoria Docks. The war delayed the con- 
struction of the works, which under normal conditions would have 
been completed in 1916. The new dock will be opened in the 
summer of 1921. 

Valuable improvements have been made in the London Docks 
by which nine additional berths have been provided, the north quay 
widened, the crane equipment modernized and pumping machinery 
installed to afford a maximum depth of 25 feet 6 inches. 

Parliamentary powers have been obtained for further extensions 
of this system, which by reason of its proximity to the City is much 
in request for vessels of moderate size. 

The East India Import Dock, when the Authority entered into 
possession, was almost out of use owing to insufficient depth of 
water, inadequate equipment and the restrictive dimensions of the 
passage giving access to it. This has now been widened to 80 feet, 
an effective pumping plant installed to increase the depth of water 
to 28 feet, new quays and sheds constructed, crane equipment and 
railway communication provided, with the result that since com- 
pletion this dock is now always full of shipping and accommodates 
vessels up to 9,500 tons. 

The West India Dock system, although the oldest, has still a 
great future, and is being modernized, as its utility is likewise 
restricted by the insufficient size of the entrances for the class of 
vessels which it is capable of accommodating. The improvement 
scheme comprises a large turning basin at the east end of the 
three main docks, with a new entrance lock 650 feet long, 80 feet 
wide and 41 feet below T.H.W. By a connecting passage the 
Millwall Dock will be joined to this system, in both of which 
vessels of 20,000 tons will be then able to berth. 

The South Dock will be equipped for grain discharge either 
into existing granaries or into a projected 40,000-ton silo. 

Considerable developments in the form of new quays, sheds 
and modern equipment have already been effected. 

At the Victoria and Albert Docks, of which the new dock 
already described forms a part, other important works have been 
completed, viz. : 

The depth of water has been increased to a level of 2 feet 
6 inches above T.H.W. 

158 




A NEW DOCK NEARIXG COMPLETION. 




A BUSY SCENE IN THE DOCKS. 



THE PORT OF LONDON 

The Western Dry Dock has been enlarged to 575 feet in length 
and 80 feet in width, and heavy lift cranes provided for ship- 
repairing purposes. 

The crane equipment for dealing with cargo has been augmented 
by the addition of forty-three electric cranes. 

At the whole of the Authority's dry docks an equipment of 
heavy lift cranes and compressed-air plant has been installed, making 
them available for the most extensive repairing operations. 

Sheds of a floor area of 350,000 square feet have been con- 
structed on the south side of the Royal Victoria Dock, with new 
roads and improved railway facilities. 

A cold store with insulated sorting floor has been constructed 
on the north side of the Royal Albert Dock, with capacity for 
500,000 carcasses, equipped with the most modern mechanical 
appliances for their conveyance. 

A further addition to the Authority's cold storage has been 
made at Smithfield Market by the erection, in 1914, of a new 
building with a capacity of 78,000 carcasses. 

The total cold storage facilities of the Authority are adequate 
for a million and a half carcasses. 

Tilbury Docks have been enlarged by the addition of 600 lineal 
yards of quay and 17 acres of water area, giving increased accom- 
modation for the largest class of ships using the Port. 

In the river at Tilbury an ocean wharf, consisting of a two- 
story jetty, has been constructed, 1,000 feet in length and capable 
of further extension, with a depth alongside of 30 feet at L.W.O.S.T. 
This will provide a facility for steamers of the largest tonnage to 
load and discharge without entering the enclosed docks. 

Deepening of the river channels by the Authority's dredging 
fleet, acquired at a cost of £400,000, is in constant progress. 

The Authority's administrative staff, now scattered over a 
number of City offices, will be housed in Trinity Square in 
a building of adequate capacity for present and prospective 
requirements, now approaching completion. 

For the rehousing of those — principally dock workers — displaced 
by dock improvements, a " garden city " development has been 
carried out near the Royal Albert Dock and two hundred houses 
erected ; land is held in reserve for the building of further houses 
as and when required. 

159 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

The expenditure on Port developments totals about £7,000,000, 
and other improvements included in the secondary programme 
already sanctioned, and in some cases commenced, will account for 
at least £4,000,000 more. 

The Authority may justly claim that substantial progress has 
been made in the task of making good the accumulated arrears 
occasioned by the long period of stagnation prior to its advent. 

In 1872 the value of London's oversea imports and exports 
was £177,000,000. Prior to the war this had risen to £412,000,000. 

About forty millions of tons net register of shipping pass 
annually to and from the Port, one-eighth of the total tonnage 
of the United Kingdom. 

The reasons for this pre-eminence are happily expressed in 
the Report of the Royal Commission on the Port of London (1900) 
in the following paragraph : 

Our inquiry into the conditions of the Port of London has convinced us of its 
splendid natural advantages. Among these are the geographical position of the 
Port ; the magnitude, wealth and energy of the population behind it ; the fine 
approach from the sea ; the river tides, strong enough to transport traffic easily to 
all parts, yet not so violent as to make navigation difficult ; and land along the 
shores of a character suitable for dock construction and all commercial purposes. 

There can be no finality in the progressiveness of a port so 
paramount as London. The policy must always be to keep well 
abreast — indeed, ahead — of requirements. Experience teaches that 
improvements in facilities bring increased trade and prosperity. 
So long as there is no faltering in recognition of this fact, the 
future of London as the greatest port of the Empire will be 
continuously assured. 



160 



THE EAST END 

THE RT. REV. H. L. PAGET (as Bishop of Stepney) 



CHAPTER XI 
THE EAST END 



The London Society has bidden me write a paper on the Future 
of East London. I am not an archaeologist, nor an historian. I 
have no convinced opinion on housing or town-planning. I am 
rather the victim of conflicting impressions than the proprietor of 
settled schemes, less mastering than mastered. Nevertheless, in a 
haphazard way I have come to know East London pretty well : 
enough perhaps to excuse, if not to justify, me in writing about it. 
But the phrase " East London " covers a large area— too 
large for comprehensive treatment. It must be narrowed down ; 
but it is not easy to say how. East London is a very different 
thing from the suburban districts northward and westward, which 
have come into being by the building over of country districts out 
towards Ealing or Tottenham. There is more history behind it, 
more romance attaching to it, than belongs to regions such as those. 
Long before it came to be what it is now, it was the home of 
great industries, of large prosperity, of extraordinarily skilful work 
and of just pride in it. A great part of it, perhaps the most impor- 
tant and interesting part of it, is riverside ; and the Thames, too 
little seen as things are at present, has helped to shape its history. 
A little to the north and following pretty closely the course of the 
river runs the Commercial Road, surely a fine and imposing name ; 
and north again of that is the Road— Whitechapel, Mile End, Bow, 
for so it is called at successive stages— which, parting from it at 
Aldgate and diverging to the north-east, crosses the Lea and goes 
on into Essex. North again, Roman Road, Old Ford, Straight Ford 
carry the mind back to a yet earlier history ; but they perhaps lie 
rather apart from the special area with which I should wish to 

163 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

deal. We must never forget the line of the river ; for the river has 
been dominant in the history of the past, and will be, I believe, 
the controlling influence in schemes for the future. Even now it 
is said that the change of air that comes with the flowing and 
ebbing tide is one of the things that save East London from the 
unhealthiness, which otherwise would visit an area where housing 
and other conditions are so bad. 

Let us think, then, chiefly of the region that lies between the 
Mile End Road and the river — and let us remember that it is a part 
of London that has a special fascination for right-minded people. 
Walter Besant, some thirty years ago, writes, almost in the spirit 
of a discoverer, of its interest and charm. Mr. Pett Ridge describes 
himself, I believe, as a devotee of London east of Aldgate ; and 
one meets now and again unexpected people who own that they 
prefer wandering in those parts to wandering anywhere else. You 
cannot brush such preferences aside with the remark that there 
is no accounting for tastes. There is clearly something in East 
London appealing, alluring, which gives it an advantage over the 
far-flung roads and avenues of the western suburbs. For it is urbs, 
not suburbs. A great piece of it is called (most delightful of names) 
the " Tower Hamlets," and its western part is almost one with the 
City herself ; and indeed there are parts of East London where the 
fame of the past still lifts its head on high. To begin with the west. 
The finest perhaps of all the classical churches in London is the 
Parish Church of Spital fields. It marks the piety, the generosity, 
the aspiration of the great fraternity of Weavers, just as the long 
low windows in Bethnal Green remind us of the loom ; nor is it a 
mere memorial of past welfare, for it was as recently as 1916 that Mr. 
George Doree, prince of velvet weavers, died, on whose loom part of 
King Edward's coronation splendour was wrought. A whole line of 
really magnificent churches, St. George's, Limehouse, Poplar, fine 
stone, fine work, encircling gardens, face you one after another 
as you go east, and a little to the north lies Stepney, where Sir 
Henry Colet had his country house, and his fine garden walk, and 
where his son, John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's and founder of the 
school, was born. Blackwall, again, farther south and on the river, 
must have been a wonderful place when, early in the last century, 
the line-of-battle ships might have been seen in building ; and where, 
tradition said, the wives of the shipwrights scorned to use any coin 

164 



THE EAST END 

less than a golden sovereign for tasting butter with. A curious 
relic of an old enthusiasm survived till 1886 (it may still survive) in 
the annual excursion of the Fairlop boat — a huge brake with a full 
ship's rigging, which bore its crew of block and pulley makers to 
Epping Forest and brought them back towards midnight, all 
exhilaration, and was galloped along the Road, swaying amid a fine 
display of fireworks. 

Bromley-by-Bow once had a Royal Palace, and fine houses 
still stand in the Bow Road and on Stepney Green ; there are fine 
houses on the pier at Wapping, and the old Harbour Master's House 
in Narrow Street, Limehouse, with its wide bow-windows and its 
balconies and its private access to the river, is like a bit of Venice ; 
and the river itself, when at last you get a fair look at it, is a marvel 
of beauty. See it, as I once saw it from some high buildings in 
Blackwall, all burnished bronze with two or three sailing barges 
floating quiet on its surface. Watch the sunset from Blackwall 
Pier, or look from the southern angle of the Isle of Dogs across 
the tulip beds and the splendour of the river to the glories of 
Greenwich Hospital, and you will agree that this is the very last place 
in the whole world that should have been allowed to become mono- 
tonous, dull, or down at heel. It is a place to live in, to be happy in, 
to be proud of. In other parts of London, more towards the centre, 
are neighbourhoods derelict because fashion has forsaken them : they 
have their own sort of desolation. Their big houses have become 
the inconvenient homes of five or six families apiece. Their squares 
are dreary solitudes. A pleasantly designed fanlight or balcony or 
verandah calls your attention to what the house may have looked 
like in its better days. But it is not the flight of fashion that has 
helped to make East London what it is. Something more vital, 
more honourable than fashion has moved away. The silent wharf, 
the empty dock, the broken frame of the old weaver's loom, speak 
of work and industry well done, well paid, worth doing, pleasurable 
and pleasure giving. These are gone : the wanderer in East 
London is apt to encounter the ghosts of men and women very 
unlike the crowds that throng it in the present day. 

It is hard to say exactly what has happened. We are told of 
shipwrights who in difficult and precarious times were obstinate 
and unbending ; they hardly seem to have understood how uncer- 
tain was the hold of London on the wonderful art; how suddenly 

165 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

iron might usurp the place of wood. We can fancy vexatious and 
autocratic rules of pilotage and harbour due that must have tried 
the temper and clipped the gains of ship captains bound for home. 
Swifter mechanism may have displaced (it never replaced) the really 
exquisite products of the weaver's loom. Pride in work, pleasure 
in work, fellowship in work seemed to leave us. Here, as elsewhere, 
people no longer cared to live where they worked or to watch with 
almost affectionate supervision the processes of an industry which 
they themselves had built up. We gradually became companies, 
and where companies come companionship seems to retire : for 
companies are seldom company. The spiritual needs of the 
district were misunderstood or disregarded. Partly by removals 
from other districts, partly by growth of population, our numbers 
increased, and houses were built anyhow, anywhere for us to live 
in. Last of all, by gradual and most persistent invasion East 
London became the abiding place of hosts and hosts of aliens from 
every nation under heaven ; foreign in speech and habits, inscrut- 
able, unassimilated, and numerous enough to capture utterly and 
make their own the districts in which they are settled. " Why," 
said a distinguished Italian to me, as we stood in Wentworth Street, 
" this is a veritable Oriental bazaar ! " Words fail to express the 
width, the penetrating depth of the influence of this incursion on 
the life of East London. The stranger will notice at once the 
unbroken lines of shops bearing foreign names, the Hebrew posters, 
the theatre with its Hebrew announcements of the plays that are 
acted there. Many of the public elementary schools are Jewish 
through and through, and close on days of Jewish observance. 
Parishes of fifteen or twenty thousand souls have an alien popula- 
tion of 80 or 90 per cent. The great churches of Whitechapel and 
Spitalfields stand in the midst of districts where at least three- 
quarters of the people are aliens. I would not attempt here to judge 
our invaders ; they have obvious good points, they have very obvious 
defects. But their presence in enormous and increasing numbers 
complicates beyond measure any forecast as to the future of East 
London. They have to be reckoned with, and a person by no means 
timid has confessed to a real though vague sense of terror in 
the midst of a great crowd, utterly un-English in the very heart of 
England. 

Nor must we forget a foreign element of another kind. Ever 

166 



THE EAST END 

since I can remember, as far back as 1881, the Oriental was a 
familiar figure in the East India Road. A string of lithe and loose- 
limbed Indians, ready to sell you an inlaid walking-stick ; or a group 
of Chinamen in native dress ; or a big and coal-black Nubian would 
meet you ; and you would wonder where he was going and what he 
would make of London streets on a Sunday afternoon ; for it was 
on Sundays that you saw most of them. And there were always 
stories of " opium dens " down Limehouse way where they smoked 
and gambled and slept. But now more of them have come, and 
they look as though some had settled down and meant to stay. 
There are streets in Limehouse wholly given up to them, and they 
are spreading into High Street, Poplar, and even into East India 
Road. Strange Chinese shops are opened, and notices in Chinese 
character are displayed. There is a China Town, on a small but 
not insignificant scale, adding its own problems to the complications 
of East London life. Small wonder that the student of human 
nature finds a field of study east of Aldgate Pump ! 

II 

It is hard indeed to forecast the lines on which a scheme for 
the improvement of East London might be framed. Those who love 
it are jealous for it with the same sort of jealousy which might be 
felt for a town of ancient memories or a beautiful building that 
has been mishandled. East London deserves to be restored, it 
ought not to be destroyed. It merits separate treatment ; it 
should not be made just like anywhere else. Certainly the 
hardship, the cruelty of anything like sudden or widespread dis- 
placement and unhousing must be kept in mind and avoided at any 
cost. The fear of this discounts and qualifies at every stage any 
ambitious and comprehensive scheme. No one knows how bitterly 
wholesale disturbance is resented, and how those whom we wish 
to benefit often ask to be let alone. The sense that any home is 
better than none is not a mere sentiment : it is a piece of bitter 
experience for those whom " improvements " have sent away to 
look in vain for lodgment. But the reconstruction of this part of 
London is long overdue. It must be done, and it is to be hoped 
that it will be done in a way that will recognize and accept the 
suggestions and indications that come from the character, yes, 

167 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

even from the traditions of the place itself. Parts of reconstructed 
London are dismal, monotonous beyond description. No one wants 
the East London of his affections to be made like them. 

Begin, then, with the river. Work up to it, down to it. Fix 
heart and eyes on it. Never forget it, or lose sight of it for long. 
A scheme was afoot before the war for recovering about eight acres 
of its bank for a tiny park and recreation ground, and the immense 
possibilities of such a proposal were seen at once. But surely there 
is scope for more than this. The Victoria Embankment above 
Blackfriars Bridge is good in its way. But it belongs, all the same, 
to a timorous and unimaginative age. It is still cold, formal, stiff, 
unfriendly. We ought to be able to do better than that. Let us 
begin by grudging every yard of that fine fringe which is shabbily, 
unworthily used. We must acquire of it all that we can. There 
is no need to interfere with the docks, the shipping. They are of the 
river, just as good as it is. But away with all that needlessly conceals 
it or bars the way to it ! We are not like the poor suburbs which 
have nothing to guide, to inspire the plans on which they are laid 
out. That has been done for us, as it has been from the very first, 
by the course of a great stream. Herodotus calls the rich alluvial 
soil of the Delta " the gift of the river," and many a fair city might 
bear the same name. It is there, it is what it is, because the river 
was there before it. It would be a shame indeed to throw away 
the infinite advantage the river gives us. Only treat it friendly. 
Rivers are content to bear the burden of our traffic : but I think 
that so far as their banks go they like to be played with. We want 
no stiff promenade, no imitative fortification, no frowning heads 
or hard bronze wreaths. There must be gardens, things to divert 
the elders and to amuse the young. Why not a big riverside 
market, such as might relieve the crowd and congestion of our 
market streets elsewhere and give life and colour and human 
interest to the recovered bank ? 

And then, for this is an easy thing, keep hold of and, where need 
be, regain every scrap of open space in the neighbourhood ; and 
bear them in mind and work them into every plan which you con- 
template. They are precious things ; far too precious to be unused 
or — and this is very important — surrounded by mere warehouses. 
Build, when it comes to building, with reference to them. Every- 
body knows that all over London a house in " the square " is more 

168 



THE EAST END 

attractive than a house in the street, and quite the pleasantest houses 
in Stepney would be those, neither too high nor too low, convenient 
and well designed, that look out into the square. And save us from 
monotony. I would as soon live in a hexagonal cell as in one of the 
homogeneous tenements or " flats " which various building trusts 
have erected. We have, I believe, discarded for ever the multi- 
floor, skyscraping form of " artisans' dwellings." Everyone, from 
some point of view or another, is found condemning them. We 
may have indeed to guard against unnecessary displacement — 
that has been already said. But the gain of lodging the same 
old number of people on the same old number of square feet 
would be dearly bought if it implied the same old models, so 
strangely unhome-like, so proved unwholesome, so dreary for the 
children ! 

Nor let us have our houses all of one size. The smallest must 
be well built, comfortable, fitted with modern labour-saving con- 
veniences. Whatever we do, let us take counsel with the wives and 
mothers ; they are our best advisers in things like these ; for they 
know by bitter, weary, heart-breaking experience what they want. 
Let us all have hot water and electric light. But let us have larger 
houses as well as smaller ones. For some of us will get on better 
than others ; and we do not want them to go away simply because 
they have become prosperous. We had rather they stopped with us. 
They might easily become our leaders in local affairs, the right 
men for the Borough Council, for L.C.C., even for Parliament. We 
do not want our homes or our lives dwarfed by enormous mansions, 
but we should be all the better were we saved the monotony of a 
uniform standard ; if the outward and almost inevitable tokens 
of moderate and (probably) well merited success gave us a bit of 
encouragement. There is a great deal to be said for a district 
that presents this sort of variety, so long as nobody is horribly rich 
and no one miserably poor. It is perhaps the sort of place in which 
the spirit of fellowship and brotherly kindness is on the whole most 
likely to thrive. We want to avoid the too emphatic distinction 
between rich and poor neighbourhoods — there has been too much 
of it in the past ; and London as a whole is too like one of those 
big houses where the servants' quarters are rigorously separated 
from the rest of the house. We all know the swing-door which is 
the line of demarcation, with the staircases carpeted on the one side, 

169 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

not carpeted on the other side of it : a house on one side, a barracks 
on the other ! 

Ill 

But what of our work ? Many, of course, will still follow the 
industries of the riverside ; and the Port of London will want them. 
But dock labour must be considered by those who are capable of 
dealing with it. It must be saved from its fatal and heart-breaking 
uncertainties. It must be " decasualized," as far as ever it can. 
We wish with all our hearts success and increase to the businesses, 
the factories and workshops where good work is done, and good 
wages are paid, and people are fairly and honourably treated. But 
too much, it seems, of the industry of East London lies away from 
all this. It consists of thousands of minor employments — of work 
let and sublet again and again, of work that is often done at the 
home of the worker, hard to standardize, to regulate, to inspect. 
It seems to carry little honour, little pleasure with it, it is hard and 
monotonous, it is still ill paid. Someone must do it : must make 
the cheap clothing, and the cheap boots, and the cardboard boxes, 
and the fur and feather trimming, and the umbrellas and the 
cigarettes. But here perhaps more than anywhere else the com- 
plicated business of the minimum wage must be worked out fair 
and square. Here the steps that secure it must be taken firmly ; 
and for those to whom we are indebted for such thankless work we 
must take extra pains to provide the healthy homes, the hours of 
leisure which may help to make their labour at least less intolerable. 

It is vain, I suppose, to hope to recapture and win back some of 
the ancient industries which, like the silk of Spitalfields, gave the place 
the pride and joy of work done better there than anywhere else ; 
but I own that I should like to see this part of East London famous 
for something that could hardly be got elsewhere ! We are amongst 
the most quick-witted people in the world. Canon Barnett tested 
and proved our appreciation for the best in art. Real critics have 
praised again and again our music and our singing. We have more 
in us than people suppose. Hand workmanship (not that generally 
associated with fancy bazaars) still beats the best that machinery 
can produce, and the world is coming to understand it. We have 
no wish, indeed, to be led down the blind alleys of amateurism or 
to have industries fostered that will come to naught. But many 

170 



THE EAST END 

people are weary of the products of mere mechanism, and there 
may yet be a demand for that which hands and hands alone can 
fashion. " Garden cities " have already been able to attract impor- 
tant industries, and have become the homes of really excellent 
craftsmanship, and why should it not be so with our reconstructed 
East London ? There is a golden spot in Whitechapel, occupied 
by a foundry which since the sixteenth century has gone on casting 
bells which are still amongst the best in the world. Is it like the 
snow under the hedges, waiting, as country people say, " for more 
to come " ? It is difficult to love East London and not to wish that 
it might become celebrated, as of old, for something fine of which 
it held the secret and the skill. 

It may well be that in thinking of all this we are merely 
dreamers, asking for that which is found nowhere else, which 
the laws of modern development forbid. Some people think we 
might become a sort of extension of the City. Why should 
Leadenhall Street break off so short and suddenly at Aldgate, 
or Eastcheap seem to come to an end of itself at Tower Hill ? 
Why not carry the dignity and splendour of it farther east ? 
It might seem the most natural thing in the world to enlarge 
by a mile or two that privileged region where land is so costly 
that the great office buildings stand nine stories high and you 
must be in a good way of business to have so much as your 
name on a plate or a topmost window blind. A bigger " City " 
does not seem impossible. But surely there would be a just 
outcry against so wholesale an eviction as this would involve. 
You must not drive people perforce away from the place in which 
they prefer to dwell. Deportation has its limits ; and perhaps a 
little bit of experience entitles me to say that it is not sheer bliss 
to live even in excellent air some miles out of London when the 
privilege is secured at the cost of a journey by train or tram, which is, 
as things are, the most tiring part of the day's work ! I am always 
inclined to ask the rapturous advocates of " easy " transit to under- 
rate their transports a little, and to test the convenience of their 
methods at six o'clock in a Chingford train or an East Ham tramcar. 
It would be a cruelty to many of us to rob us of a domicile within 
reasonable distance of our work. As things are, we are surely badly 
served. The tube railways seem to have forgotten us altogether ; 
we have, indeed, the District Railway : but travel by it at the time 

171 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

when we are leaving off work, and you will face the discomforts of 
overcrowding in their severest form. There are, of course, the 
main suburban lines, but we cannot waste our time catching trains : 
we want the train that catches us ! And no part of London can 
get on without us. 

Well, then, make a suburb, a residential neighbourhood of it. 
But what does that mean ? It is easy to imagine the place being 
simply spoiled. So it would be, if great blocks of " model " buildings 
were thrust upon it, or if it were to lose all trace of character by 
the construction of rows of mongrel-architecture houses such as we 
know only too well in other parts of reconstructed London. Why not 
have in mind from the first, and work out little by little as time goes 
on, a far more attractive and inspiring scheme ? Here is an area 
of moderate size and with fairly definite boundaries. Westward 
the City seems to look the other way ; eastward the Lea reminds 
us that beyond it lies another county. The district has possessed 
a certain unity in the past and had a character of its own. The 
river — we turn to it again and again — does more than suggest ; it 
claims a special and imaginative dealing with a neighbourhood 
fortunate in lying on its northern strand. Do nothing suddenly, 
use no hard and cruel haste, but work from the first with a definite 
scheme in mind. Determine to make this part of London a place 
to be happy in, a place to be quietly proud of. Let it have its own 
completeness, its moderate self-sufficiency. I am no town-planner, 
but I have seen enough of towns at home and abroad to suggest 
the sort of place I have in mind. The present open spaces, made 
the very most of, would almost (not quite) suffice for beauty and for 
breathing-room ; but we must have more buildings devoted to 
public comfort and common use, for rest and recreation and the 
pleasure of meeting one another. We want a rare good concert 
hall and a fine theatre ; we want clubs and gymnasia. We might 
have public halls, such as are provided in some of the big towns in 
America, where people whose homes are small ones might meet for 
their private social gatherings, wedding parties and the like. These 
halls should be under the care of the municipal authorities, who 
might also provide plants and decorations suiting the occasion for 
which they were engaged. We want the river bank, wherever we 
can get it, accessible and attractive as only the bank of a noble 
river can be. 

172 



THE EAST END 



IV 



Have I shirked ; have I left to the last a difficult matter ? 
Plato, I think, somewhere in the Republic, seems to postpone and 
procrastinate with regard to a point that puzzled him. I have 
been trying to write of the future of East London, and all along I 
have left myself pursued by a question which sooner or later is 
bound to arise. What about the alien ? You are thinking, plan- 
ning, building ; but after all, who is it for ? Some of the districts 
in this area have an alien population outnumbering ten times 
over the people of our own race. They occupy at once every 
house they can secure. Quick-witted, indefatigable, alert, they slip 
into our places, they take our houses, they sometimes seem to 
get our work. 

Certainly I have no hostility for the alien as such. I am sure it 
is wrong to judge and condemn them en masse, or to sum up under 
some hasty and scornful verdict their infinite variety. I can do no 
more than point to what seems to me the real seriousness of allowing 
a great piece of London like this, the natural home of thousands 
and thousands of our hardest workers, to be taken from them, 
driven out as they are by the constant invasion of people of other 
races. We could assimilate, as it were, a certain number ; as it 
is, they seem more likely to " assimilate " us. It is one thing to 
offer a friendly welcome, it is another to find yourself fairly 
overwhelmed ! 

It is possible, of course, that the pacification and reconstruc- 
tion of Europe may allure some of them to their own homes. We 
are thankful to believe that in the past they have found in England 
a justice and a kindness which were denied to them in other lands. 
We sympathize with them in their sufferings, and we admire the 
patience and courage with which those sufferings have been borne. 
But I hope I am not wrong in claiming East London for the 
Londoner, and thinking chiefly of the needs and difficulties of our 
own people. 



173 



SOME THOUGHTS ON 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF LONDON 

RAYMOND UNWIN, F.R.I.B.A. 



CHAPTER XII 

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT 
OF LONDON 

London is a wonderful phenomenon : from small beginnings it 
has continued for centuries to spread over areas ever growing 
wider, and to include a steadily increasing population, until to-day 
it represents the greatest accumulation of people ever gathered 
together in one town. This city is so vast, its growth has been 
so continuous, that we have formed the habit of regarding its 
development rather as a phenomenon of nature to be accepted and 
submitted to, than as a work of man to be guided and controlled 
for the benefit of its inhabitants. Cities and towns grow because 
of the great pleasure which men derive from associated life and 
because of the great profit which they secure from associated work. 
Working and living alone, or with only a few companions, a limit 
is soon reached of what men can do and of the variety of life which 
they can enjoy ; but when large numbers are living and working 
together there is hardly any limit to that which they can accomplish ; 
and, though the scope of their life, both in interest and enjoyment, 
may perhaps reach its limit at an earlier stage in the growth of 
numbers, it is at least vastly increased as compared with that 
possible for small, isolated groups. Hence it is that men the world 
over crowd together in cities. On account of this tendency certain 
conditions usually arise. There is congestion in the centre and 
keen competition for the occupancy of the most favourable positions, 
with the result that the price of land is enhanced, and, too often, ■ 
there follows a degree of overcrowding, with its concomitant disease 
and misery, that goes far to deprive large sections of the population 
of those very advantages to attain which the city has come into 
existence. Too frequently men have allowed themselves to be 

177 m 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

enslaved to those conditions which they themselves have created. 
Efficiency of work and the convenience and pleasure of life they 
allow to be hampered or destroyed as a result of their crowding 
together for the purpose of securing the benefits of associated life. 
The inconveniences and the untold evils springing from congested 
slum life have been accepted as if these were some law of divine 
ordinance before which men were helpless. 

The first thought that I wish to suggest is that the 
conditions of town life are those of man's own making ; that 
he can alter them and regulate them, and that there are no 
unalterable laws producing the evils which he accepts. All he 
needs to do is to regard the city as a great human activity, 
needing to be guided like any other. The fact is, the growth of 
towns has become a scramble, and reminds one of a crowd 
at the ticket office that has not learnt to form a queue. Citizens 
must learn the queue habit, learn to regulate the tendencies which 
spring from the desire of many people to live near the centre of the 
city, and to control the use of the coveted sites there situated 
in the interests of the whole community. This is very important 
in reference to London at the present time, for the city is on the 
verge of great developments. It has been spared some of the worst 
evils of overcrowding which have invaded cities like New York 
and Berlin, where the people are packed together in tall tenement 
dwellings planned with insufficient light and air, but so substan- 
tially built, and so costly, that their removal will be a matter of 
the greatest difficulty. Fortunately, in London the tendency to 
decentralize has come in time. Even before the war London had 
ceased to absorb its natural increase of population. The wide 
area generally known as Greater London was an exporter of popula- 
tion ; during the last decade for which figures are available some 
200,000 people forming part of the natural increase of the population 
of the metropolis went to live beyond the bounds of Greater London 
as measured by the police area. Moreover, the exodus from the 
central to the outer parts was so great that the population in many 
of the central areas was actually less in number than in the previous 
decade. This is evidence of a very marked movement of population 
taking place in this great city. In addition to this more permanent 
movement, the daily movement of the population, as shown by 
the number of journeys per head, has been increasing very rapidly. 

178 



SOME THOUGHTS ON DEVELOPMENT 

One of the results of the war, which has for five years arrested the 
normal development of means of transport, while not arresting 
but possibly stimulating the travelling activities of the people, has 
been to produce a great congestion in all the means of transport. 
The people have been going out from the City to live, to such an 
extent that now they can hardly get into the City to work. This 
difficulty as to passenger transport is a somewhat serious problem 
which needs to be fairly faced. For it comes as a last reinforcement 
to the defeated army of arguments against the decentralizing of 
dwellings, and if we are not on our guard may result in giving to 
the tenement dwelling a new lease of life in London. 

With the decentralization of the dwellings of the people 
there has been concurrently going on a concentration of business 
and the consolidation of industry into fewer and larger units. 
Mass production of many of the products on which we depend 
has been growing, and with it has come a call for larger 
industrial areas and better organization of the facilities for 
transport of raw materials and finished products. Ready_inter- 
change of goods and services between the main industries and 
those subsidiary industries which minister to their requirements 
is increasingly necessary. It is becoming more and more evident 
that industries scattered about in the heart of a great city, to 
and from which all goods must be carted through the streets, owing 
to their want of access to either water or railway carriage, cannot 
be run under modern conditions with sufficient economy to compete 
with great industrial enterprises which are properly laid out, in 
direct contact with the main means of transport and near to other 
allied industrial concerns. Hence we see the development of 
definite industrial areas ; and in the neighbourhood of London we 
find that the greater part of the level land lying along the banks 
of the River Thames, from the City down as far as Tilbury, is already 
occupied, or about to be occupied, by great industrial enterprises 
which will make use of the river and the railways for transport 
purposes. Similar development is noticeable also along the main 
railway lines. 

There is therefore a tendency to concentrate industries in relation 
to one another and the means of transport, and to decentralize them 
in relation to the city itself. Now we, as citizens of London, can take 
one of two courses : either we can allow these great movements to 

179 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

go forward haphazard, leaving each individual merchant to elbow 
his way into an advantageous office or warehouse in the centre, each 
individual manufacturer to seek out unaided some available spot 
on which to locate his industry, each individual tenant to scramble 
for the best tenement he can find in an overcrowded city ; or, on 
the other hand, we can henceforth regard the development of our 
city as we should regard any other great enterprise, as one needing 
to be organized and directed towards producing the best results 
for the whole. No one would think of suggesting that the infantry, 
cavalry, artillery, medical and sanitary corps composing an army 
should be allowed, when forming a camp, to scramble for the sites 
on which to pitch their tents and depots ; nor in the great factories 
which had to be created during the war was it the custom to allow 
the chiefs of the different sections to choose sites and put up 
buildings where and how they thought best for their own purposes. 
In both these classes of large enterprise the importance is generally 
realized of working to some comprehensive plan, of apportioning 
the ground in an orderly manner to give the utmost convenience 
and advantage for all sections, and above all to contribute to the 
most efficient and effective use of the whole to achieve the purpose in 
hand, in the one case to provide the most effective fighting unit, 
and in the other to create the most efficient organization for 
production. Mistakes are no doubt made in such matters, but in 
laying out a factory, the natural flow of the processes, beginning 
with the delivery of the raw material and leading up to the dispatch 
of the finished product, is at least considered ; the location of the 
different buildings to facilitate this flow with the minimum of 
transport and waste of time and labour ; the placing of the offices 
to secure efficient oversight, of the workshops to facilitate repairs 
where most likely to be required, of the change rooms and canteens 
to minister most efficiently to the needs of the workers, are all based 
on careful study and planning. Estimates are made beforehand 
of the number of workers in each building, diagrams are drawn 
indicating graphically the density of employment in the different 
parts of the area, and the length of walk from these parts to the 
canteens, factory gates or train halts, and the whole arrangement 
and development of the works is laid out to secure, first, the main 
end in view, efficient production ; second, the convenience and 
welfare of those engaged in the work. 

180 





TWO VIEWS IN THE HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB. (BARRY PARKER 
AND RAYMOND UNWIN, ARCHITECTS.) 

(Showing how Londoners of the Future might he housed.) 



SOME THOUGHTS ON DEVELOPMENT 

The time has come to realize that the same kind of compre- 
hensive organization and planning must be applied to the growth 
of a city. We need to look at the city and its activities as a 
whole, to envisage its aims and purposes, and learn to control its 
development and provide a fitting environment for the millions 
of individuals whose activities contribute to the realization of those 
purposes, and whose well-being it is one of the chief functions of 
the city to secure. 

London itself is so immense and complex that it is difficult 
in the first instance to get a comprehensive view of it ; nevertheless, 
it is extremely necessary at this time. It will only be possible here 
to touch on a few of the great problems which are raised by the 
most preliminary consideration of its development. 

First, as to the size of London. I venture to suggest that 
London as a single aggregation of population is already far too 
large ; that no advantages to the inhabitants of London which can 
result from its further increase could outweigh the disadvantages ; 
and that we should look to the early arresting of such growth, and 
even to the possible diminution of the number of people already 
occupying the area of London itself. It may be, however, that 
we have not yet reached, in certain directions, the limit of efficiency 
due to concentration ; particularly may this be so in reference to 
commerce and business of various kinds. The central area devoted 
to business may therefore continue to grow. Moreover, the industrial 
development along the banks of the Thames may call for additional 
industrial population. How, then, is it possible to prevent the 
area of residential London continuing to spread ? It has been found 
in other countries that it is quite possible to set a limit to the size 
of a city ; many have been ringed with fortifications outside which 
it has been necessary to preserve a belt of ground unbuilt upon for 
protective purposes. The city has grown up to the limit of this 
fortified line, but beyond it this open zone has had to be respected, 
and any further extension has perforce been by means of detached 
suburbs outside that range. What can be done to secure safety 
from the danger of very occasional armed attack can also be done 
to secure any other advantage sufficiently desired by the inhabitants. 
It is high time that a green belt were preserved around London to 
protect its inhabitants from disease, by providing fresh air, fresh 
fruit and vegetables, space for recreation and contact with and 

181 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

knowledge of nature. How is this to be secured ? Probably by 
the development of satellite towns, largely self-supporting, having 
their own industries, garden cities, and perhaps also by detached 
dormitory suburbs. The tendency for industries to concentrate 
outside London along the river's bank and by the railways will 
greatly assist the development of such satellite towns. As far as 
possible the industries should be decentralized, as this would reduce 
the traffic problem by enabling the workers to live near their 
employment. Any increase of transit difficulties which might result 
from the suggested development of dormitory towns for those 
employed in the commercial centre could be compensated for by 
the reduction of the enormous volume of unnecessary transport 
which now blocks our roads and lines. There are two ways of 
meeting transport difficulties. One is to provide additional trans- 
port and new facilities, and the other is to reduce the waste of 
transport, and thus economize in the use of existing facilities. There 
is a very wide field for the latter method. Mr. Gattie's scheme for 
the centralized distribution of all London's goods traffic has failed 
to secure the support of the Committee appointed to investigate 
it. Perhaps the project has suffered from its own immensity ; 
but there remains very much force in the arguments derived from 
the useless waste and the needless congestion of traffic in London. 
I may instance Covent Garden Market. It is one of the greatest 
single markets of the world, and yet every ton of produce which 
reaches it or leaves it must be carted through many miles of the 
busiest London streets, for Covent Garden has no direct contact 
either with railway or with water transport. A list of other markets 
and of many factories might easily be made which would indicate 
a total volume of heavy cartage in and about the streets of London, 
which, if saved by better location of markets, factories, warehouses, 
etc., would materially ease the congestion of the streets and lighten 
the wear and tear of their surfaces. In this connection much may 
be learnt from such a city as Frankfort, which before the war was 
developing a great industrial area on ~ its eastern outskirts. This 
was served by miles of new wharves to accommodate the Rhine- 
borne merchandise, with sites laid out for factories and warehouses, 
all provided with direct access to the river and to the complete 
railway system serving the city. Much also might be learnt from 
Seattle and other American cities, studies of which have been made 

182 



SOME THOUGHTS ON DEVELOPMENT 

for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of their industries and 
of the handling of their imports and exports. 

In connection with passenger transport also there are many 
questions" calling for careful study in this great city. In three or 
four of the most important cities of the world, where such studies 
have been made, the conclusion generally accepted is, I believe, 
that the best results cannot be secured when passenger traffic is 
dealt with at a number of great terminal stations on the outskirts 
of the central area of the city. In the competition that was held 
for the planning and improvement of Berlin, the linking up of its 
railways and the creation of a central station or group of stations 
for the interchange of passenger traffic was a main feature in 
several of the successful schemes. In New York, even on the 
crowded isle of Manhattan, central stations have been created. 
A wide study of the problems of transit in Chicago has resulted 
in the conviction that some linking up of the terminal stations is 
required. Somewhat similar results could be quoted from other 
cities. It is questionable whether the terminals in our city of 
London are now best adapted for their purpose; whether it is most 
useful that the vast areas of sidings and shunting grounds should 
be occupying such an extensive part of London's most coveted 
sites ; whether the problem of London transit could not better be 
met by some underground linking of these main lines which would 
allow some, at any rate, of the trains to run through London, 
starting on the distant outskirts, picking up their passengers in 
the centre and passing thence to their destination. This would 
permit much of the marshalling of the trains to be carried on outside 
the city. Such a course may or may not be practicable, but the 
experience of other great cities would suggest that it is well deserving 
of careful study. It may be that, as a result of changes now about 
to take place in the organization of London's traffic, there may 
some day arise on the site that is now occupied by Covent Garden 
Market a great central station similar in size, and I hope equal in 
beauty, to some of those recently built in America. 

In considering the decentralization of population and the 
general growth of a city, we should remember that distance is 
more effectively measured by minutes than by miles, and that what 
each citizen who must work in the commercial or administrative 
centre requires is that he shall live 20, 30 or 40 minutes from his 

183 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

work, and that provided he can do this, it is of less importance to 
him, whether the distance is 5, 10 or 20 miles. Hence it is instructive 
to map out residential areas and colour them to indicate the time 
distance from the centre. If this is done, it will be found that 
satellite cities may frequently be nearer to the centre than vast 
suburban areas. Much may be done, as we may learn from other 
countries, to reduce the time distance by co-ordinating our different 
means of transport. Hitherto these have been run too much 
I in competition— the main lines with the tube railways, the tube 
railways with the trams and the trams with the omnibuses. 
Efficiency will be found in co-ordinating all these services so that 
they minister the one to the other and all to the passengers' needs, 
and in carefully organizing for interchange between them to be 
as rapid and as convenient as possible. We are only beginning in 
London to provide for such interchange at all. Golder's Green, 
with its yard in which omnibuses take up the passengers set down 
at the terminus by the tube railway, is a crude example : how 
crude, those who stand in the rain and wind in the open yard waiting 
for their particular omnibus, or wait at no small risk in the middle 
of the Finchley Road to catch a passing tram, may realize if they 
will compare with it one of the interchange stations in Boston, 
where the passengers alight from their suburban train on a platform 
at the other side of which the street cars draw up. They have 
only to step out of the train, cross the platform and enter the 
tram, under cover, at the cost of a few seconds of time. It is clear 
that we have not, in London, nearly reached the limits of convenient 
transport ; and it is probable that the development of satellite cities 
with the proper arrangement of rapid transit from the centre direct 
to these points, so far from increasing the present congestion of 
transport to and from the suburbs, would relieve that congestion 
by sorting the passengers and leaving only those to occupy the 
tubes and trams who were not journeying the longer distances. 

When considering London's needs for improved railway 
facilities, we must not overlook the great revival of road transport 
which has taken place, and the equally urgent need that routes 
for the arterial roads, perhaps ere long to be required to serve a 
ring of satellite towns developing around this great central city, 
should be preserved, and should be adequate in width and character 
to deal with the various kinds of road transit. It may be that 

184 





TWO VIEWS IN THE HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB. (BARRY PARKER 
AND RAYMOND UNWIN, ARCHITECTS.) 

[Showing the way Londoners of the Future ini<iltt be housed.) 



SOME THOUGHTS ON DEVELOPMENT 

the tram will give place to the motor-bus and the motor-car ; but 
experience of other cities where roads exist of adequate width to 
provide a separate track where trams can run at high speed, 
interfering with other traffic to the minimum extent, suggests that 
the comparative value of the two kinds of transport cannot properly 
be judged until roads suitable for tramways are available for them. 
The tram in the middle of a crowded carriage-way, where every 
passenger who boards or leaves a car is in great danger of accident 
from passing traffic, and where every other vehicle using the road 
must constantly cross and recross the tram tracks, is a very 
different proposition from the high-speed tram running quietly 
along a strip of turf, with safe paved spaces for passengers to alight 
upon, and able to run without fear of a collision from one crossing 
place to the next. In any case, whether required for high-speed 
trams or high-speed motor-cars, it is clearly wise that ample width 
should be reserved along the routes where it may be foreseen that 
arterial roads will be required to meet the future needs of London 
and its satellite towns. 

The fact that London, the largest of cities, has been able to 
grow to its present size with such comparatively imperfect develop- 
ment and co-ordination of means of transit, and yet to accommodate 
its people mainly in self-contained cottage homes— that it has in 
fact escaped the general adoption of the tall tenement dwelling — 
would seem to disprove any necessity for that type of housing. 

The advantages in health and pleasure and in the general 
amenity of life which are secured by a more open development of 
the residential areas are so pronounced that even if, to secure them, 
we must ere long fix a lower limit of population to some of our great \ 
cities, this would probably be no disadvantage in itself, and would 
in any case be a very cheap price to pay for the great advantages 
gained. It is known that a rapidly reducing return in efficiency 
results from overcrowding houses upon land, and this is especially 
pronounced on the economic side at the present time, when the | 
cost of street works is relatively so much higher than the cost of 
the extra land required. 

The following figures speak for themselves ; they compare an 
example of crowded development with one of open development, 
based on the average price of urban land which is being acquired 
for housing purposes by the local authorities, and the pre-war and 

185 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

present average costs of road-making and other works of develop- 
ment in urban housing schemes. 





1914. 


1919. 




£212 


£212 


Complete cost of roads and j 


Ordinary, 


£5 8s. Od. 


Ordinary, £11 6s. Od. 


sewers per yard lin. . . j 
No. of houses to the acre. . 


Narrow, 


£3 Os. Od. 


Narrow, £6 10s. 3d. 


Open. 


Crowded. 


Open. 


Crowded. 


12 


21-3 


12 


21-3 


Area of plot in square yards 


346 


164 


346 


164 


Total cost of plot for land 












£42 18s. Od. 


£38 Is. 2£d. 


£70 16s. Id. 


£68 15s. 4d. 


Cost of plot per square yard 


2s. 5}d. 


4s. 7Jd. 


4s. Id. 


8s. 4- Id. 


Extra per yard due to in- 












— 


2s. 2d. 


— 


4s. 3-ld. 


Rent per week to give 5J 










per cent, return on cost . 


10-89d. 


9-66d. 


Is. 6-07d. 


Is. 5-45d. 


Extra rent per week for 










larger plot with reduced 












123d. 




0-52d. 





It is clear also that this type of development, which affords 
so much greater opportunities for home-life, and particularly 
for child-life, and gives a lower death-rate and a lower sickness- 
rate for nearly all the chief diseases, can be combined with the main 
social, educational and cultural opportunities which spring from 
city life. It is not possible to fix any exact limit of population 
necessary to secure the maximum of such opportunities, but many of 
the cities which in the past have afforded the greatest opportunities 
in these respects have been small in numbers compared with our 
large cities ; and it is probable that beyond a hundred, or at most 
two hundred thousand population, mere size can add but little fo 
the benefits which may be enjoyed by a population within the 
numbers named. 

The open type of development, with gardens attached to most 
of the dwellings, whilst reducing to some extent the need for play- 
grounds and open spaces, by no means allows these to be dispensed 
with ; and we have in this country much need for the provision 
of playgrounds and playing-fields in towns which have grown up 

186 



SOME THOUGHTS ON DEVELOPMENT 

with little provision for these. In America much more has been 
done to meet this need than in this country. For the built-up 
portions of American cities the standard that has generally been 
adopted as the desirable one is that there should be a playground 
for young children within half a mile of every dwelling, and a larger 
recreation ground for older boys and girls within about a mile. In 
addition many American cities are reserving large areas for parks, 
pleasure grounds and wild open spaces in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of the cities, so that as the towns expand these areas will in 
perpetuity remain open. Very large sums, running in the case of 
some cities into millions of pounds, have been spent in clearing 
built-on areas and creating necessary open spaces and playgrounds. 
In the case of London such provision of open space should be made 
as rapidly as possible in the central area ; but perhaps it is still 
more urgent on the outskirts, because it is at present so much easier 
and more economical there than it will be later to reserve sufficient 
area of suitable ground to form the play and pleasure grounds for 
this great population. It is one of the most valuable features of 
the map prepared during the war by the London Society that 
some indication is given of the best grounds for such reservations. 
Frequently flat land in the neighbourhood of streams, not specially 
good for building purposes, will form excellent recreation grounds ; 
while high points difficult of access may be invaluable for pleasure 
and holiday resorts. If the vast population of London is to have 
reasonable access to open spaces in natural condition, such areas 
should as quickly as possible be reserved, and to a generous extent, 
to form a green belt about the present London. 

One of the most pressing problems in connection with the 
development of London is the creation of some unity of control, 
with a general staff to think out and plan the policy for this great 
city, and to secure that the broad lines of development shall all be 
laid down ; to determine the best positions for the new satellite 
towns or dormitory suburbs, the best areas for industrial 
development, and those which should be reserved for belts of 
open space, for intensive agricultural use, accommodation land, 
and so forth. What a few years ago would have been regarded 
as large towns are already being planned as housing schemes by 
local authorities around London ; and it is most important that 
all who are concerned with the development of this great city 

187 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

should combine to lay down the main lines of such development. 
It is not necessary that such a central authority should control all 
the details of the vast area. We have yet to learn in regard to 
municipal as in regard to Imperial matters that unity of command 
in connection with the main lines of policy, and main dispositions 
which affect the whole, can and should be combined with the 
utmost freedom of local control and local initiative in those 
matters which affect primarily the different localities ; and that a 
much more healthy municipal government will result by giving 
to the different localities the utmost autonomy in regard to their 
local affairs that is compatible with a general direction on those 
matters which equally concern the whole city. 

There remains one other point to which I would refer. We 
have been discussing the development of the city of London as if 
the whole of its site and the area surrounding it were at the disposal 
of the city and could be used without difficulty for whatever purpose 
the interests of the city should demand. It is this point of view 
that I have wished to emphasize, because I believe that the time 
has come when it is the one which must be taken ; for the proper 
development of London cannot be brought about while the individual 
owners of small or large patches of ground retain the right to use 
that ground for whatever purposes they think best, having regard 
only to their own interest. We must recognize that the high value 
of land in and around the great city is, like the other conditions 
which have been referred to, the direct result of the coming together 
of many people, and of the advantages of one sort or another which 
may be derived from this associated life. For a population to 
allow themselves to be enslaved by those conditions, and prevented 
by the very value of the advantages which their association creates, 
from enjoying those advantages to the full, would be both futile 
and foolish. How, then, is the free disposition of land to serve the 
best interests of the public to be secured without entailing ruinous 
expense on the public purse ? The first step is to recognize that 
the value of land is due to the advantages to be derived from settling 
upon it, to the opportunities which it affords. Moreover, that 
anything which increases those advantages or opportunities, which 
improves the efficiency of industry, increases the profits of commerce 
or the pleasures of life in the city, will certainly increase the total 
amount of the value of the sites which must be occupied to enjoy 

188 



\ 



> Q 




-■JL -Mk. 



SOME THOUGHTS ON DEVELOPMENT 

these opportunities. Hence all the improvements or controls which 
we sum up in the term Town Planning, as applied to the organiza- 
tion and the laying out of the development of a great city, do 
not destroy but increase the sum total of land values. They 
do not destroy the total, but they may alter materially the 
apportionment of such values to the different individual sites. For 
example, if around the present London there were reserved a belt 
of open space a mile wide, upon which no buildings could ever be 
erected, it is clear that this land would cease to have any value for 
building purposes ; its A'alue would be limited to whatever it might 
be worth for intensive culture, for letting as recreation grounds, 
accommodation land, orchards and so forth. But as London would 
continue to require as many additional buildings each year as it 
would have required apart from this provision, the next belt of 
land outside that reserved mile would, as a matter of fact, acquire 
additional building value, and its value would on the whole be 
increased by at least as much as the value of the open belt had 
been reduced. There would be a new distribution of values, but 
unless the whole project were a great mistake and did not add to 
the total amenity and value of life in the city, there would be no 
destruction. Moreover, if the whole of the land around the city 
were in one ownership, it would not matter to that owner which 
piece of land acquired a building value and which merely retained 
its agricultural or open-space value. The matter of interest to 
such an owner would be that the land should be so developed 
that the total value of the whole would be as high as possible. 
As that total value represents in fact the sum of the efficiency 
and pleasure of the associated life of the city, it is equally to 
the advantage of the city itself that that total should be high and 
should be increased. 

How, then, are we to meet this problem of redistribution ? It 
is evident that nothing need be destroyed, that the total value may, 
indeed, by wise action be increased. This is a problem urgently 
needing solution. Many different methods of dealing with it have 
been suggested. At the Garden City at Letchworth, Mr. Howard 
purchased the whole of the area of the city and sufficient additional 
land to form an agricultural belt round it. As the town has grown 
the land has increased in value. Some of it has been reserved for 
business purposes, some set aside for factory areas, some for cottage 

189 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

building. Already the value of that reserved for factory buildings 
is considerably higher than that reserved for cottage building ; 
and it has been shown that land upon which shops and business 
buildings may be built has a much higher value than that upon 
which dwellings or even factories only are allowed to be erected. 
The Garden City Company make the regulations defining the factory 
areas, the business areas and the residential areas, with a view to 
the best development of the town, and they do not need to consider 
their policy in reference to its effect on the value of this bit of land 
or that bit of land : what they need to consider is the securing of 
the greatest total value, and this they know will result from securing 
that development of the area which will give the greatest efficiency 
and the greatest pleasure of life. 

The simplest solution of the problem obviously would be for 
every city to own its site and a sufficient area of land around its 
site, as at Letchworth ; but there are great difficulties in the way 
of this solution. Land around our towns has acquired a special 
speculative value, each owner hopefully anticipating that his 
particular plot will be one of those upon which buildings will soon 
be required. Hence if the whole area were purchased on such 
speculative prices, and any check to the development of the 
individual town took place, there might be considerable loss to 
the municipality. If the whole of the land of the country were 
dealt with in this way, probably the cities whose growth exceeded 
expectation would compensate for those where the growth was less 
than was anticipated. 

There are, however, alternative methods of dealing with this 
matter. The plan adopted in dealing with the reduction of the 
number of public-houses affords a precedent. We have seen that 
the removal of building value from land required for open space 
has the effect of increasing the value of the next available building 
ground. A somewhat similar result was anticipated from the 
closing of a number of public-houses ; it was assumed that those 
that were left would acquire additional trade and profit thereby, 
and they were required to contribute to the compensation of those 
deprived of their business. A somewhat similar arrangement has 
been adopted, apparently with great success, in some American 
cities. In the city of Kansas, for example, all improvements such 
as we have been considering, the creation of parks, boulevards, 

190 



SOME THOUGHTS ON DEVELOPMENT 

playgrounds, etc., have for many years been paid for by assessing 
the greater part of the cost of these improvements upon the sites 
which have derived direct benefit from them. At first there was 
naturally some opposition on the part of the owners of those sites, 
who were sceptical as to the improvement in the value of their land 
being equal to the assessment ; but the last accounts available 
suggest that the owners have been convinced by actual results that 
the arrangement is in fact fair. The method of assessment is rather 
interesting. The City Corporation decide the proportion of the 
total cost which should be borne by the whole city and the propor- 
tion which should be assessed upon the particular sites deriving 
benefit. The apportionment of the total sum required to the 
individual sites, however, is left to the expert representatives of the 
owners themselves. The latest particulars available showed that 
83 per cent, of the cost of the improvements, amounting to 11,000,000 
dollars, had been assessed on those sites, and only 17 per cent, had 
been charged to the general city rates. The results have proved that 
the value of the sites which have been assessed for improvement has, 
in fact, increased, as compared with the sites not so assessed, by an 
amount which is decidedly in excess of the amount of the assessment. 
In other words, those who have paid a special contribution on account 
of benefit have in fact received more benefit than the amount of their 
contribution ; thus confirming the view that where improvements 
are wisely made, not only does the value of the ground increase 
by the amount that the improvement costs, but that it will be likely 
to increase somewhat more than this. Very remarkable figures , 
are also given as to the increase of land values in the residential 
areas in New York which were opened up by the underground 
railway, figures which show that the cost of the railway itself might 
have been paid out of this increase. So convincing have these 
figures proved that the City of New York has decided that in the 
case of any extension of such railways, part of the cost shall be 
paid by an assessment on the increased land values due to such 
extension. It is not intended to suggest that either the special 
assessment practised in Kansas or the municipalization of land 
would be the best solution for the problem as we find it in London. 
I do, however, strongly urge that the time has come when this 
matter should be carefully examined. I further suggest that it 
may be taken as proved that wise Town Planning regulations, while 

191 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

they will alter the apportionment of land values, will cause more 
increase than reduction of them ; therefore it should be possible to 
devise a fair system under which town planning improvements could 
be carried out without injustice to the landowners, but without being 
hampered by the one-sided policy of compensating the individual 
in all cases where his land is deprived of value and making him 
a gratuitous and undeserved present in all cases where the value 
of his land is improved, which represents very much our present 
system. We must recognize that this unwise course is a serious 
obstacle to the proper development of towns, and to the proper 
apportionment of the different areas to those uses which they may 
best serve in the interests of the whole community, and as wise 
citizens we must find a means to change it. 



192 



THE HOUSING OF LONDON 

W. R. DAVIDGE, F.S.I. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE HOUSING OF LONDON 

The Housing of London ! No one can say in his heart of hearts 
that London is satisfactorily housed. Charming homes there are, 
it is true, whether in the West End square or in the distant suburb, 
but none of us can shut our eyes to the miles on miles of depressing 
streets that lie between and make up London — not necessarily squalid, 
but monotonous and uninspiring to the uttermost degree. 

Comparatively few Londoners live in houses of which they 
can be reasonably proud, and only a proportion in homes with which 
they can be reasonably satisfied. 

The difficulty of finding a suitable home is one that presses 
upon all classes of the community. The joys of house-hunting have 
with all of us at some time or another been reduced to disillusionment 
and disappointment in the house that is found. The ideal only 
too often vanishes in the actual. We know exactly the house we 
desire, but the houses that are empty or likely to be empty all fall 
short in so many ways. There are frequently only to be found 
mouldering, mournful premises which even the enthusiasm of the 
house agent cannot disguise. 

If this is so with the houses of the comparatively well-to-do, 
with the working-class home it has in the past been next to im- 
possible to exercise any choice in the quality or even in the location 
of the home. 

With the greater proportion of the population, even with in- 
creased wages, the family means are strictly limited, and in many 
cases the ideal of even a separate house is far beyond the attainable. 
Under such circumstances the conditions overpower all ideal of 
the home as a place of which the housewife can be proud and to 
which the children can in after years look back with affection. 

195 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

The census returns for Greater London show that 77*2 per cent, 
of the population live in premises with six rooms or less ; hence 
the problem of housing the people has been in the past almost 
exclusively a question of housing the working classes. 

In the London of the future all classes must be provided for 
and houses must be available to suit all tastes, both as to location 
and accommodation. The houses must be in the right place, with 
the right surroundings and of the right size and design. 

GROWTH OF POPULATION. 

The growth of population of Greater London has been steady 
and consistent throughout the century. It is true that the popula- 
tion of the administrative County of London is not increasing, but 
this is only indicative of the tendency of the population to spread 
further afield. Even the limits of the Metropolitan Police District 
have long since been passed in the growth of the metropolis. 

London's workers come in from almost anywhere within a 
radius of 50 miles. From High Wycombe and from Southend, from 
Guildford and from Brighton come the daily streams of workers, 
so that London's effective population is far above the 7£ millions 
recorded by the last census as living within the metropolitan area. 

The length of a man's purse, however, governs the length of 
his daily pilgrimage, and these comparatively long journeys are at 
present only for the relatively well-to-do. It is not altogether a 
question of distance, but of time taken in transit ; often, in fact, 
one can reach Brighton in less time than it takes to reach some 
second-rate suburb. 

TRANSIT. 

The daily fare is the first governing factor, and it will be 
remembered how much the cheap workmen's fares on the Great 
Eastern Railway have contributed to the building of such places 
as Tottenham and Walthamstow, now a vast neighbourhood of 
small houses. 

The railway companies and omnibus companies can do much 
to spread the people and to secure their satisfactory location. The 
relative cost of railway travel or bus fare will always be an 
important first consideration (Diagram No. 1). 

196 




RELATIVE COST OP RAILWAY TRAVEL IN GREATER LONDON 
OF SEASON TICKET RATES. 

(Diagram No. 1 by W. R. Davidge, F.S.I.) 



COMPARISON 



To face p. 196. 



HOUSING 

With the revival of cheap fares, quick trains and the provision 
of better houses in the outer areas, much could be done towards a 
better standard of life for the mass of the people. 

If, for instance, the railway companies introduced cheap return 
fares and made it a general rule that trains should not stop until 
10 miles out of London, an enormous impetus would be given to 
the development of the area benefiting by the new facilities for 
travelling. Such places as Hither Green, Purley and Golder's 
Green have sprung up within an incredibly short space of time, 
owing to the joint efforts of the landowners and the railway 
companies. 

Good travelling is, indeed, the key to good housing. The 
one is a necessary corollary to the other, and each without the other 
falls short of the ideal. 

There are still considerable districts in Greater London not 
fully served by railway, and the diagram attached shows the extent 
of such areas more than one mile from a railway station (No. 2). 



LOCATION. 

The proper placing of the community centres round a great 
central community like London is not altogether a matter of for- 
tuitous chance, and should not be left solely to the enterprise of an 
individual or a railway company. Some guiding authority there 
must be to bring all these important agencies into co-operation 
for the common good. The first essential is a plan ; at present, 
only too often any new development in a district tends to rob it of 
some of its natural charm or to depreciate the residences already 
there ; the second essential is that no one shall be allowed to design 
a house unless he knows how to do it in such a way as to add to, 
or at least not to spoil, the beauty of the neighbourhood. 

DENSITY OF POPULATION. 

The accompanying diagram (No. 3) gives a broad indication 
of the relative densities of population per acre, from which it will 
be seen that the heaviest figure per acre is provided by Shoreditch. 

The Ministry of Health has wisely laid down that a maxi- 
mum of twelve houses per acre is the utmost that should be allowed 

■ 197 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

in the future housing schemes in urban areas, or eight houses per 
acre in rural areas. 

Twelve houses per acre is equivalent to a population of from 
fifty to sixty persons per acre. It will be seen how great an im- 
provement this is on existing conditions from the following figures : 



Shoreditch (Ware Street area) 


. . 333 


persons per acre 


St. George's in the East . . 


. . 307 




Spitalfields East 


. . 275 


,, ,, ,, 


Mile End West 


. . 267 


>> i> 


St. James, Finsbury 


. . 233 


>. » n 



OUTWARD MOVEMENT OF POPULATION. 

Already, however, with the displacement of dwelling-houses 
by offices, factories and other industrial buildings, together with 
the improvement of means of communication, there is apparent a 
diminution of population, starting from the centre and gradually 
working outwards. 

The population of the City and Holborn began to decline in 
1861 ; then came the turn of the adjoining areas of Finsbury, Shore- 
ditch, St. Marylebone and Westminster, which have steadily declined 
since 1871. St. Pancras and Chelsea began to drop off in 1891, 
followed by Bermondsey in 1901 and Southwark and Stepney in 
1911. Islington and Kensington have also begun to lose their 
population, and even in 1911, in twenty out of the twenty-nine 
metropolitan boroughs the population showed a decrease as com- 
pared with ten years before. 

PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS. 

It does not, however, follow that the diminution of population 
leaves more living space for the inhabitants who remain. Of the 
thirteen central boroughs named above, no less than ten show in 
the period 1901 to 1911 an increased proportion of inhabitants 
living in tenements of one to four rooms. 

At the date of the last census, 758,786 persons in the County 
of London were living in conditions of overcrowding, i.e. in excess 
of two persons per room. 

So far as the County of London is concerned, the sort of 
accommodation the population secures is shown by the follow- 
ing table : 

198 




GREATER LONDON: AREAS SHADED ARE MORE THAN ONE MILK FROM 
A RAILWAY STATION. 

(Diagram No. 8 by W. B. Davidge, F.S.I.) 



HOUSING 

5 • 9 per cent, of the total population live in 1 room tenements 

149 „ >, ,. ,. 2 

19-9 „ „ „ „ 3 

17-4 „ „ „ „ 4 

10-7 „ „ „ „ 5 

8-4 „ „ „ „ 6 

169 „ „ „ „ 7 

5" 9 „ „ „ „ Institutions, etc. 



and upwards 



100 per cent. 

It will be seen from the above table that 58 - 1 per cent, of the 
total population live in four rooms or less, and 77*2 per cent, of 
the total population live in six rooms or less. 

The larger houses are in many cases let as flats or occupied 
by more than one family, and in many cases whole neighbourhoods 
average two or three families per house. 

Housing in the past has been provided almost entirely by private 
enterprise, and the municipal housing provided by the local authori- 
ties, even taking into consideration the valuable work of the London 
County Council, has only succeeded in the last twenty-five years 
in providing accommodation for 70,000 people, or approximately 
1 per cent, of the whole population of London. 

PROPORTION OF EMPTY HOUSES. 

The percentage of empties in London County Council dwellings 
is instructive, as an indication of the present shortage. 

In March 1911 it was 7*11 per cent. 



1912 


, 5-96 


1913 


, 2-57 


1914 


, 125 


1915 


, 095 


1916 


, 0-48 


1917 


, 033 


1918 


, 0-23 



It will be noted that there is a drop from lj per cent, to J per 
cent, during the war. This means that at the present time there 
are practically no empty tenements or houses of the small type. 
Such " empties " as there are consist almost entirely of derelict 
property, mostly the larger houses which have outgrown their 
usefulness. 

199 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

In the central areas the last thirty years have seen a steadily 
growing tendency to concentration in tall block dwellings or palatial 
hotels or flats, while simultaneously in all the suburbs there has 
been a steady creeping paralysis of two-story villadom, mile after 
mile of brick and mortar slowly eating up the country-side. 

THE FRINGES OF LONDON. 

Diagram No. 4 shows in light hatching the growth of a century. 

All round the patchwork pattern which is London, the fringes 
are for ever unfinished ; for ever are the threads being woven which 
will end in covering up all the natural beauty of the country-side. 

The suggestion has been made not once but many times during 
the past three centuries that this crazy pattern of town building 
should be stopped and a broad border of green park lands should 
surround the community. 

Given adequate transit facilities, there is no special reason 
why a new start should not be made in a new direction and new 
towns spring up all around, but separated from the built-up area 
by a belt of open country. 

We are then faced with the alternatives, either to continue 
building on to the outer fringe of London, adding house to house, 
or to commence afresh at new centres some distance out and there 
create a number of self-contained garden colonies or communities. 

Transit has been vastly improved in many directions, but it 
cannot be said to have kept pace with the spread of the population. 
Tube railways daily grow more congested, and the struggle for a 
place on a motor-omnibus is more acute than ever it was in the 
days when the horse vehicle was the only conveyance. 

The evils of town life have been emphasized time and time 
again, ever since the overcrowding which first began to make itself 
felt in the days of Elizabeth. 

The far-seeing Princess and her Statesmen were so appalled 
at the prospect of London's growth and overcrowding that a statute 
was actually promulgated enacting that an open space of three 
miles should be maintained all round the city on which no building 
whatever should be allowed, and even outside this limit no cottage 
was to be erected unless it was surrounded with at least four acres 
of land. These requirements were long observed, both under Eliza- 
beth and James I. 

200 




DENSITY OF POPULATION IN GREATER LONDON. 
[Diagram No. 3 by W. E. Davidge, F.S.I.) 



HOUSING 

The turmoils of the Civil War and the growth of private enter- 
prise, however, brought these wise provisions eventually to nothing, 
and the growth of London's population has gone on unchecked in 
increasing proportions. 

The accompanying table gives an indication of the way in which 
the population has grown and is growing (Diagram No. 5). 

No less than 150,000 houses were built in Greater London 
during the ten years preceding the war, and it is obvious that, 
however they are provided and whoever pays for them, at least 
300,000 new houses will have to be supplied for London during 
the next twenty years. 

How and where these houses are to be provided will depend 
upon a number of factors, of which probably the most important 
is the means of transit between work and home. 

The existing main roads, which were adequate a century ago 
for a community of one million souls, have now to serve the needs 
of over seven millions. Except for small improvements, the main 
roads remain the same as they were a hundred years ago ; in places 
they have actually been narrowed since the days of the turnpikes, 
and the costly work of rounding off corners and widening bottle- 
necks can do little to make their carrying power equal to the 
demands of modern times. 

The existing railways and tube railways have been in only 
too many cases planned with a view to the immediate prospects 
of dividends, and without regard to the wider needs of the future. 

The speculating builder has done his best to supply the need 
for houses as and when it arose, and every new improvement in 
transit or train service has been followed by a growth of bricks 
and mortar. 

THE POSSIBILITIES OF OWNERSHIP. 

One of the greatest aids to contented citizenship is the exten- 
sion of the possibilities of ownership, and especially of the spirit 
of partnership in the general prosperity of the community. 

Under the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act as now amended, 
it is possible for a working man to buy the house in which he 
lives up to a value of £800 with the aid of a loan from the 
local authority. 

For those who prefer the principle of co-partnership, it is pos- 

201 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

sible to form a Public Utility Society, and with the aid of the State, 
through the medium of the Public Works Loan Board, to obtain 
an advance of 75 per cent, of the cost of building and developing 
an estate. 

In Greater London there is room for every form of housing enter- 
prise, except such as in time past has taken the form of exacting 
the highest possible rent for the worst possible houses, but it is 
essential in the public interest that the problem should be con- 
sidered in relation to transit, food supply, recreation and other 
facilities, and that all such enterprises should be co-ordinated by 
some authority with the widest possible vision. 

THE LONDON STREET. 

Fifty years ago Dickens wrote, in describing Bob Sawyer's 
quarters : " There is a repose about Lant Street, in the Borough, 
which sheds a gentle melancholy upon the soul." 

The same thing might be said of nearly every street in suburban 
London ; most are monotonous, if not melancholy. 

To the artist there is a great charm in London's sunsets, but 
to most of us the interest of the street is not in the architecture 
but in the people. 

Only in the houses of the well-to-do, and then only occasionally, 
has the architect been called in to guide the design, and as a con- 
sequence our suburban streets have acquired a monotony and 
repetition which is the reverse of attractive. However useful or 
desirable a bay window might be, it appals one when repeated a 
hundred times in a hundred similar houses in a hundred similar 
streets. London's suburbs are a byword. Architects have been 
employed in some instances, it is true, but probably not in 
5 per cent, of London's houses. You can tell the difference any- 
where between the architect's house and the builder's stock design, 
but how many appreciate the change that might be wrought by the 
simple insistence on the employment of a qualified architect in 
the design of even the most matter-of-fact houses in the most 
matter-of-fact street ? 

Even a building line with properly designed breaks and well 
set back from the road may be made a thing of beauty and not 
a mere line of bricks. Present-day London owes much to the 
foresight of the legislators of a hundred and fifty years ago, who 

202 




HorSK-TOI'S AT SHADWELL. 





A STREET STILL EXISTING NOT FAR FROM GOLDER'S GREEN. 
(Showing how many Londoners are still housed.) 

To face p 202. 



HOUSING 

insisted on such roads as the Euston Road and other turnpike roads 
being laid out 150 feet wide between the buildings. 

If London is to be better, her new buildings must be better 
built, and must be designed and built by men who have been 
trained to appreciate that subtle distinction between the comely 
and the commonplace. 

CAUSES OF PRESENT SYSTEM OF DEVELOPMENT. 

Before discussing how such transformation may best be accom- 
plished, let us first investigate the causes which have brought about 
the present methods of development. These may be summed 
up as : 

(1) The leasehold system of London ; 

(2) The lack of transit facilities ; 

(3) The lack of co-ordination in municipal government — 

the latter of which has resulted in an almost complete absence of 
any provision for town planning or new routes and a complete 
lack of civic ideals. 

The leasehold system has many advocates, and there can be no 
doubt that many of the West End squares would never have been 
provided had it not been for the provision of these amenities by 
far-sighted landowners, who saw in their provision, what experience 
has since proved, that such open spaces not only considerably add 
to the value of their property, but also afford one of the readiest 
means of maintaining the character and value of the district. 

The " falling in " of the leases of a large estate at approxi- 
mately the same date also affords, in the case of what are now the 
central districts of London, an opportunity for reconstruction on 
a broad and comprehensive plan. 

Such results, however, are only attainable at rare intervals, 
and in the long years when the lease is beginning to run out there 
often ensues a period of depression, dilapidation and neglect which 
throws an appearance of blight over a whole neighbourhood. Such 
instances will rise to mind in all directions, and however useful 
the system may be in exceptional cases, it is undoubtedly true that 
leasehold tenure leads in only too many cases to under-leases and 
sub-leases and so on, by which, at each process, the speculator can 

203 "*■ — «. 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

squeeze up the ground rent to his own profit, with the result that 
an economic rent can only be obtained by overcroAvding buildings 
and sub-tenants. 

The difficulties of transit have already been touched upon as 
a primary cause of London's unsatisfactory housing, and it must 
be obvious to all who have studied the housing problem of London, 
in common with all large cities, that no matter how excellently the 
houses may be built, no matter how healthy their location, they 
will be of little use in solving the housing problem unless there 
is ready and rapid means of access to the industrial centres of 
the town. 

Transit by air has not yet come into practical service, and 
until such time as it does we must rely upon improved main roads 
and train services. It will be obvious, however, that much can be 
done in the improvement of existing services to encourage the 
development of the outlying and the detached suburb, and the 
speeding up of all such means of transit is an all-important first 
consideration in the proper development of London and London's 
housing. 

The lack of co-ordination of municipal government is evident 
in all directions, especially in the areas immediately outside the 
county boundary. Here are to be found entirely different codes 
of building by-laws, different ideas as to overcrowding, as to sani- 
tation, and even as to ordinary rules of construction. 

Rates in such a case are grossly unequal, and under present 
circumstances it passes the wit of man to devise a workable and 
satisfactory scheme of equalization. 

While such conditions prevail it is obviously difficult to expect 
any complete co-ordination of proposals with respect to town plan- 
ning and arterial roads, or even a general plan of development, 
and London has yet to wait a little longer for the realization of this 
first essential, that London is one community. 

COTTAGE v. FLAT. 

The need, so far as Greater London is concerned, is undoubtedly 
for the small self-contained house, such as can only be built where 
land is comparatively cheap, that is, not in the centre of London, 
but on the outskirts. 

The need for block dwellings arises only in comparatively few 

204 



2Si'\5ZZ 







HOUSING 

instances where it is essential to house the workers in the heart of 
London. Even in these cases it may be well argued that cheaper 
rents and healthier conditions in the suburbs more than outweigh 
the slight saving of time effected by living in a crowded tenement. 
In the one case, the whole family live perforce in crowded conditions, 
with scanty and cramped accommodation and at high rents, in 
order that the bread-winner may be near his work. 

The only positions where block tenements can reasonably be 
considered are in the rare cases where it is necessary to house workers 
on a particular spot of limited area. Such cases may arise in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the docks or in close proximity of 
the railway termini, but such block tenements should be discouraged 
as far as possible. 

The general adoption of the eight-hour day is a new and very 
important factor in the distribution of population. Previously, 
certain classes of labourers — for instance, dockers — who might have 
to begin work at any hour, working perhaps four hours one day 
and twenty-four hours the next, had perforce to live within a few 
hundred yards of their work. This is no longer necessary to anything 
like the same extent, and one of the stages in town planning is the 
bringing home to the mass of the people that they can live farther 
away from their work. 

THE PRESSURE OF LOCAL RATES. 

From the diagram (No. 6) of the incidence of local rates it will 
be seen that in almost every case the rates are highest where small 
property abounds and people are poorest. 

Even where there are contributions from the Rates Equaliza- 
tion Fund, the discrepancy in the incidence of rates still exists. The 
main item responsible for this increased burden is education, which 
in the poorer neighbourhoods presses very heavily on the harassed 
ratepayer. Added to this, the increased rates for sanitary and 
other services form a heavy demand on the local community. 

So pronounced is this tendency that it is in many cases true 
to say that every additional workman's house means an addition 
to the rates ; hence the fight put up by many of the outlying local 
authorities against the building of additional workmen's houses 
within their area. 

The pressure of rates has the effect of directly increasing the 

205 



* 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

rent, though even with increased rents the unfortunate owner of 
small property is no better off, and the tenants themselves show their 
resentment by the way in which they treat the property. 

This vicious circle may in part be due to our system of rating, 
but, whatever the system, the remedy, it is clear, lies in the broaden- 
ing of the rating area. At present the area of Greater London is 
cut up into considerably over a hundred separate rating authori- 
ties, and the burden of rates is consequently heaviest where it can 
least be borne. 

In the crowded districts of the east of the County of London, 
where the amenities of life are least, the rates are invariably the 
heaviest, and even here it is only the existence of factories and other 
valuable property which keeps the rates from going higher still. 
To build a new colony of small working-class houses in one of the 
outer suburbs is thus not always welcome to the local authority. 

The area of Greater London is wealthy enough to bear its own 
burdens, and the real weakness lies in the want of co-ordination 
between its innumerable local authorities. Each loyally strives 
to keep its own area intact within a cast-iron compartment, and 
refuses to recognize that it is but part of a larger whole and 
responsible for its share of the common weal. 

The diagram (No. 5) of the growth of rateable value gives 
some indication of the increased total of property value in London. 

Although the rateable value has trebled during the past forty 
years, the increased public services have more than absorbed the 
increase. 



NECESSITY FOR AN IMPROVED STANDARD— A HIGHER CON- 
CEPTION OF HOUSING. 

During the past few years men's ideas have broadened, and 
what was good enough ten years ago will not be good enough in the 
immediate future. 

Until quite recently the minimum size for a living room in 
London County Council dwellings was 12 feet by 12 feet, or 
144 square feet, and generally not more than two bedrooms 
were provided. 

Now the Government requirements for the State Housing 
Schemes are for the living-room 180 square feet, i.e. 12 feet by 

206 




W.R.D. 



APPROXIMATE COMPARISON OP RATES LEVIED IN GREATER LONDON. 
[Diagram No. 6 by W. 1!. Davidge, F.S.I.) 



HOUSING 

15 feet, a parlour of 120 square feet, with at least three bedrooms 
and a bath-room. 

LONDON'S PLAYGROUNDS. 

The question of playgrounds in Central London is a difficult 
one, and in recent years has only been partially solved by the 
opening of old burial-grounds for this purpose. 

In the open country, of which there is still much within a short 
distance of London, land is still both cheap and plentiful, and the 
playground can in some cases be as wide as the hills themselves. 

There are many disappearing beauty spots, but all Londoners 
will strain every nerve to preserve those broad expanses of heath and 
upland, of dell and down, which are still to be found on the Surrey 
hills or in the highlands of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, 
where London's dormitories are already extending. 

These health-giving expanses must for ever be preserved for 
the community as a whole. The cost of their preservation is as 
nothing to the terrible cost of letting them slip from our hands. 

The needs of the community as a whole must come first, but 
the community, after all, is but the sum of the separate units, and 
the primary end and aim of communal government is the protection 
and well-being of the individual. 

External security is the duty of the State. Security of health 
and happiness should be the duty of the city. Only too often in 
the past the sanitary authorities have carried out even the essen- 
tial health services in a more or less niggardly spirit, and the 
few amenities that have been provided have been subservient to 
the need for keeping down the rates. 

THE ESSENTIALS OF THE HOME. 

The essentials so far as a home and its location are con- 
cerned are : 

That the house should be the right size, not too small, so that 
the family is overcrowded, not too big, so that the mother 
is overworked, and not too dear for the family income. 

(a) In the right location. 

Accessible to the town. —Not too far for the workman 
to go to his work, not too far from the shops, 
207 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

the church and the picture palace, and not too 
far from the school. 
Accessible to the country. — Not too far to the 
allotment, not too far from the parks and 
the hills of the open country, and not too 
far from the children's playground. 

(b) Of sound construction. — Weather-proof, warm in 

winter, cool in summer. 

(c) Sanitary. — No harbour for the microbe in wall or 

roof or floor. No refuse matters or decomposition 
tolerated to remain. 

(d) Pleasant in design and surroundings. 

The home must accord with the wishes of its inmates ; it must 
be easy to maintain and easy to work ; its accommodation must 
provide for all reasonable needs, and its surroundings must provide 
for all reasonable aspirations. 

Last, but not least, it must be reached in all reasonable comfort 
within a reasonable time. 

Broadly speaking, however, the essential requirements of every 
home are : 

(1) At least three bedrooms. 

(2) A bathroom and lavatory. 

(3) A living-room, scullery and larder, and generally speaking 

a " parlour." 

There is nothing startlingly fresh in this statement of accom- 
modation ; it has long been regarded as the minimum to be 
provided by any speculating builder who sets out to gauge the 
public needs. 

A different standard of measurement is, however, essential. 
In the past the speculating builder has provided a house which 
has sold well, and having sold one, he was prepared to build a 
hundred more just like it. If one street was a success, he would 
build a dozen more just the same. The public have but rarely 
had the opportunity of choice between living in one of the dozens 
of suburbs built on this pattern or of living in a garden suburb, 
where each house is designed by an architect for the particular 
position and surroundings. 

208 



HOUSING 

When the public has had such an opportunity it has invariably 
declared its delight with the innovation, and slowly but surely the 
modern British citizen is realizing that those long, dreary streets 
of Suburbia are not a necessity. He always knew they were not 
beautiful ; he now finds that they are not economical or satisfying. 

The future of our towns lies with the architect. 

Constant thought and skilful guidance are needed. Too often 
in the past the opening out of new thoroughfares has been pre- 
vented again and again by comparatively unimportant buildings 
standing across the only route possible for the new artery. 

The development map of The London Society is destined to 
become an invaluable guide to the London of the future. During 
my comparatively short term of office as Housing Commissioner 
at the London Housing Board, every new housing site submitted 
was set down on the Society's map and carefully considered 
in relation to the proposed arterial roads and general scheme of 
development, and this is but one example of the steadily growing 
value of the work of The London Society. 

Important above all else is that every house built, whether 
in Inner London or in the outer suburbs, shall fall into its place in 
a general plan of development. 



209 



THE GOVERNMENT OF LONDON 

W. E. RILEY, F.R.LB.A. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE GOVERNMENT OF LONDON 

The complex machinery instituted in the past for the government 
of London requires some description, in order that those interested 
in its simplification may appreciate the difficulties which surround 
this important question. A general outline of the services and 
the powers under which they are administered will therefore be 
necessary as a preliminary introduction to the subject. 

The Administrative County of London comprises the City 
of London and 28 metropolitan boroughs. In 1911, the population 
was given as 4,521,685, the area at 116 - 95 square miles. "Water 
London " is that area supplied by the Metropolitan Water Board 
with water, and embraces portions of five counties : Kent, Essex, 
Surrey, Herts and Middlesex. " Greater London " and " Police 
London " are practically the same areas, extending to a radius 
of 15 miles from Charing Cross, the latter term applying to the 
area patrolled by the Metropolitan and City Police. Before the 
war the population was given as about 7\ millions. The Port 
of London extends from Havengore Creek to Teddington. There 
are fifteen authorities having independent and (in several services) 
collateral powers, embraced in twelve classes of service; the fore- 
most and most comprehensive powers are those with which the 
County Council is charged. In that body there are 137 members, 
of whom 118 are elected by the ratepayers triennially, 19 are 
aldermen selected by the councillors for a term of six years. A 
chairman, vice-chairman, and deputy chairman are elected annually 
in March. 

The Council is represented by 51 of its members on nine 
outside authorities, amongst which are the Metropolitan Water 
Board (14), Port of London Authority (4), etc. 

213 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

The City of London has 206 common councillors elected annually 
and 26 aldermen directly elected for life. The City is presided over 
by the Lord Mayor, who is elected annually. 

The 28 boroughs are governed by Councils of from 30 to 60 
members (the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of 
Kensington are embraced in the 28) ; the elections take place 
triennially. Aldermen to the number of one-sixth the councillors 
are co-opted for six years, and each borough is presided over 
by a mayor. 

These several authorities control the majority of the services 
with which the London Society is chiefly concerned. How they 
are all elected is largely a matter of enacted procedure, which was 
brought into being in 1888. The franchise is now so enormously 
increased and the representation so modified by the enrolment of 
women voters and their presence in the County Council, that the 
details would require much space to make clear. Those interested 
in these important proceedings had better read up the most 
recent legal routine rather than depend on a summary. Suffice 
it to say that it is akin to Parliamentary procedure, but its vital 
importance to ratepayers is strangely overlooked by those who 
have to abide by the actions of the elected and meet the liabilities 
they incur in their period of representation ; so apathetic, indeed, 
are the voters that at the two earliest County Council elections 
less than 50 per cent, of the electors voted, and in subsequent 
contests this percentage has only been slightly increased. At 
five borough council elections prior to 1913, only once did the 
voting reach 50 per cent., and the average of the five was only 
47 per cent. 

One of the most important of the questions dealt with by the 
governing bodies is that of finance. There are two classes of esti- 
mates put forward annually to meet the liabilities and the opera- 
tions with which they are charged ; they may be broadly indicated 
as (a) capital expenditure and (b) expenditure on rate and revenue 
account (usually called maintenance). The first of these is submitted 
to Parliament as a Money Bill by the London County Council, 
on which the borrowings of each financial year are based ; the 
second head of expenditure has to be met out of the rates. The 
word " maintenance " is not very concise ; in the Imperial Service, 
for instance, it is applied to votes for maintaining services, e.g. 

214 



GOVERNMENT 

" repairs and maintenance of buildings," and when so used has a 
special meaning easily understood, such as is implied by the " good 
tenantable condition " of an ordinary dwelling-house. In municipal 
affairs it means much more. 

The London County Council is the sanctioning authority for 
loans to the Metropolitan Borough Councils, boards of guardians, 
metropolitan asylums, district managers, etc. ; the last published 
return gives these loans as over 15 millions. This does not 
represent the total indebtedness of these authorities, as they can 
borrow from other sources. The total net debt of the Council and 
the other authorities was over £114,000,000 when the last return 
was made in 1913, and it is quite certain to be now much more ; 
but there is a primary security for over 50 per cent, of the loans 
raised for carrying out undertakings of a revenue-producing 
character. 

The twelve principal services allotted to the various authorities 
may be summarized as follows : 



1. 


Health. 






7. Regulative. 


2. 


Protective. 






8. Administration of Justice, 


3. 


Amenities. 






9. Education. 


4. 


Traffic. 






10. Domestic. 


5. 


Financial. 






11. Public assistance. 


6. 


Care and control 
defective. 


of 


the 


12. Constitutional machinery. 



No. 1 embraces main drainage, sanitary by-laws, infectious 
diseases, housing (clearance schemes), housing of the working classes, 
water supply, infectious sickness and about twenty other services, 
and there are eight authorities charged with the responsibility in 
connection with their administration ; the four principal authorities 
are the County Council, the City Corporation, the Metropolitan 
Borough Councils and the Metropolitan Water Board. As examples 
of the refinements of control, the County Council has the power 
to make by-laws regulating the construction of drains and other 
means of communicating drainage to the sewers ; these by-laws are 
administered by the Metropolitan Borough Councils ; but an appeal 
lies to the Council against any order of a sanitary authority in respect 
of these by-laws. The main drainage has been reviewed at different 

215 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

periods by the County Council, and a comprehensive scheme dealing 
with it has been put in hand : the total length of the sewers in the 
main drainage system is about 370 miles, draining an area of 149 
square miles, embracing a population, according to the 1911 census, 
of over 5\ millions. This colossal work has cost the Council over 
5\ millions sterling. 

The service which at the moment takes a prominent position 
under heading No. 1 is the housing of the working classes. The 
London County Council, the Metropolitan Borough Councils and the 
City Corporation are empowered to deal with certain phases of this 
question. Parts I, II and III of the Act of 1890, amended in 
1894, 1900, 1903, 1909, formed the instrument under which a consider- 
able amount of housing was provided up to the outbreak of the 
war. The Act was again amended in 1919. 

Part I places upon the County Council the responsibility of 
dealing with unhealthy areas after sanction by the Local Govern- 
ment Board (now the Ministry of Health) ; the initiation of such a 
scheme lies with the Medical Officers of Health, whose attention 
could be drawn to the existence of unhealthy areas by two Justices 
of the Peace or twelve ratepayers. 

Part II empowers the London County Council and the Metro- 
politan Borough Councils either conjointly or separately to deal with 
small unhealthy areas. The procedure is similar to that described 
for Part I, but an official representation by the Medical Officer 
of Health is not necessary. 

The Local Government Board, up to the time of its absorption 
in the Ministry of Health, could require or dispense with the necessity 
of providing accommodation for working class persons displaced by 
the clearance of unhealthy areas. 

Soon after the conclusion of hostilities in the recent war the 
Housing and Town Planning Acts were re-cast, and two very 
important Acts passed in 1919. 

The salient features of this legislation are as follows : 

(1) Every local authority within the meaning of Part III 
of the Housing Act, 1890, is placed under obligation to consider the 
needs of its area with respect to the provision of working-class 
houses, and to submit a scheme to the Ministry of Health within 
three months from the passing of the Act. The Ministry may 

216 




DTJCANE ROAD, OLD OAK ESTATE. (W. E. RILEY, ARCHITECT.) 




;est end of tower gardes, white hart lane estate. 

[Two examples of L.C.C. cottage housing schemes.) 



GOVERNMENT 

extend or amend the scheme, which must then be carried out 
by the local authority (Sections 1 and 2). 
A scheme must specify : 

(a) The number and nature of the houses to be provided. 

(b) The quantity of land to be acquired. 

(c) The average number of houses per acre. 

(d) The time within which the scheme is to be carried out. 

(2) It provides powers for the Ministry of Health and county 
councils to act in default of any local authority who may neglect 
to carry out its powers and obligations (Sections 3 to 6). 

(3) It empowers the Ministry to recoup, out of moneys pro- 
vided by Parliament, part of the losses incurred by local authorities 
in carrying out housing and rehousing schemes (Section 7). 

(4) It empowers County Councils to borrow money for eighty 
years, instead of thirty years as provided by the Local Government 
Act, 1888, to meet expenses incurred in housing employees or 
buying land therefor (Section 8). 

(5) It provides that in the case of insanitary property acquired 
under Parts I and II of the Act of 1890 the purchase money shall 
represent the value of the land as a site cleared of buildings 
(Section 9). 

(6) It empowers local authorities in carrying out housing 
schemes under Part III not only to acquire lands, but also to 
acquire buildings thereon, and to utilize and develop such buildings 
for housing purposes, and to acquire land for leasing purposes 
in order that such land may be developed for housing or general 
building purposes (Section 12). 

(7) It empowers local authorities to acquire land by agreement 
under Parts I and II in anticipation of the sanction of the 
Ministry of Health (Section 13). 

(8) It extends powers of local authorities in dealing with land 
acquired for housing purposes so as to permit of the provision of 
roads and open spaces and the sale and exchange of land and the 
sale or lease of houses (Section 15). 

(9) It empowers local authorities (including County Councils) 
to promote the formation of, or assist, public utility societies, whose 
objects include the provision of working-class houses, and it 

217 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

empowers the Ministry of Health to assist financially such societies 
and housing trusts (Sections 18-20). 

(10) It provides for loans by local authorities to private persons 
for the improvement of housing accommodation (Section 22). 

(11) It provides for the relaxation of building by-laws 
(Section 24). 

(12) It provides power to authorize the conversion of a house 
into several tenements (Section 27). 

(13) It empowers local authorities to require working-class 
houses to be repaired and made reasonably fit for human habitation 
(Section 28). 

(14) It amends the provisions of the Town Planning Act, 1909 
(Section 42), and requires every borough or urban district containing 
on January 1, 1923, a population of more than twenty thousand to 
prepare and submit to the Ministry within three years from that 
date, a town planning scheme in respect of all undeveloped land 
(Section 46). 

(15) It increased from £400 to £800 the value of houses which 
may be purchased under the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act, 1899, 
and increases from 80 to 85 per cent, the limitation on the amount 
which may be advanced (Section 49). 

The salient features of the second Act of 1919 put on the County 
Council and the Corporation of London in the City the responsibility 
attached to the " local authority " (Section 11). They may be 
summarized as follows : 

(1) Provides that payments may be made to persons or bodies 
of persons constructing houses which : 

(a) Comply with the conditions prescribed by the Ministry. 

(b) Are certified to be complete in a proper workmanlike manner. 

(c) Are commenced and completed within twelve months from 

the passing of the Acts (December 23, 1919), or such 
further period not exceeding four months as the Ministry 
may allow. 
A proportionate reduction shall be made in respect of 
houses not completed within twelve months, if the 
Minister allows. 

(2) The aggregate grants shall not exceed £15,000,000, and 

218 




THE MILLBANK ESTATE. (W. E. RILEY, ARCHITECT.) 




THE BOURNE ESTATE. (W. E. RILEY, ARCHITECT.) 
(Two examples of L.C.G. Block Dwellings.) 



GOVERNMENT 

grants shall not be made in respect of houses erected by local 
authorities in respect of which payment may be made under the 
Housing Act, 1919. 

(3) Where it appears to a local authority that the provision 
of dwelling accommodation may be delayed through deficiency of 
labour or materials, arising out of employment of labour or materials 
in the construction of works or buildings (other than those authorized 
by an Act of Parliament), and that the construction of those works 
or buildings is of less public importance than the provision of 
dwelling accommodation, the authority may prohibit the construction 
of such works or buildings, subject to conditions prescribed by 
the Ministry. " Appeal is provided to a tribunal of five persons 
appointed by the Minister. 

(4) If any person after December 23, 1919, without the per- 
mission of the local authority, demolishes in whole or part, or uses 
otherwise than as a dwelling-house, any house which at that date 
was reasonably fit or reasonably capable without reconstruction of 
being rendered fit for human habitation, he shall be liable to a fine 
of £100 or three months' imprisonment. An appeal to the Minister 
is provided. 

(5) The Act empowers a local authority to borrow money by 
the issue of bonds for housing purposes. 

(6) If a local authority or an authorized association desires to 
acquire land for development of a garden city, or for a town 
planning scheme, the Minister may acquire such land on behalf of 
such authority or association and vest it in them. 

(7) The County Council may require district surveyors in 
London to perform such duties, and will pay them such remunera- 
tion, as it may think fit. 

(8) Duration of the Act shall be two years from December 23, 1919. 

Up to the passing of the Town Planning Act, 1909, and subse- 
quent to that period, the provision made in Part III of the Housing 
Act had been regarded as a voluntary service. The recent Acts since 
the war (especially the two of 1919) have removed this question from 
the voluntary category. The whole of the housing in London, pro- 
vided under Parts I, II and III, up to the declaration of war, carried 
out by the County Council, gave accommodation officially recog- 
nized for 58,870 persons. A substantial portion of this was in 

219 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

respect of Part III, and the writer was responsible for the design and 
execution of about 88 per cent, of this work. Since the armistice, 
and under the Act of 1919, he designed and let contracts for an 
addition of over nine hundred houses, now in the course of 
construction. 

The second great group of services in London were referred 
to as " protective services." They include fire brigade, theatres, 
music-halls, cinematograph halls, and about eighteen others of a 
minor kind. The City Corporation carries out in the City ten of 
these services, and the Lord Chamberlain — -and, in certain cases, 
the Home Secretary — licenses a number of theatres and other 
premises for the purpose of entertainment. These buildings amount 
to sixty-eight, and they are as follows : 



Theatres licensed by the Lord Chamberlain. 



Adelphi. 

Alexandra. 

Ambassadors'. 

Apollo. 

Brixton. 

Comedy. 

Cripplegate Institute. 

Criterion. 

Dalston. 

Daly's. 

Duke of York's. 

Elephant and Castle. 

Gaiety. 

Garrick. 



Globe. 

Haymarket. 

His Majesty's. 

Kennington. 

Kingsway. 

London Opera House. 

Lyceum. 

Lyric. 

Middlesex. 

New. 

Palace, Bow. 

Pavilion. 

Playhouse. 

Prince's. 



Prince of Wales's. 

Queen's. 

Rotherhithe Town Hall. 

Royalty. 

St. George's Hall. 

St. James's. 

St. Martin's. 

Savoy. 

Scala. 

Shaftesbury. 

Strand. 

Vaudeville. 

Wyndham's. 



Other Premises licensed by the Lord Chamberlain for Stage Plays. 



Alhambra. 

Bedford Palace. 

Camberwell Theatre and Picture 

House. 
Camberwell Palace. 
Camden Hippodrome. 
Canterbury. 
Coliseum. 
Collins's. 
Empire. 

Empress, Brixton. 
Finsbury Park Empire. 
Hackney Empire. 
Islington Empire. 



King George's Hall. 

London Hippodrome. 

London Music Hall. 

London Pavilion. 

Metropolitan. 

Palace. 

Palladium. 

Poplar Hippodrome. 

Queen's Palace, Poplar. 

Rotherhithe Hippodrome. 

Royal Victoria Hall. 

Shoreditch Olympia. 

South London Palace. 

Victoria Palace. 



220 



GOVERNMENT 

The means of escape and protection against fire in both new 
and old places of entertainment are dealt with under the Metropolis 
Management Act of 1878. The responsibility for dealing with this 
service rests with the London County Council and was inherited 
from the Metropolitan Board. In the early exercise of this control, 
buildings built prior to 1878 could only be dealt with under the 
Act if the defects required to be remedied were such as could 
be remedied at a moderate expenditure, but it has been found in 
practice that the managers of theatres have generally been quite 
willing to bring such places of entertainment up to a reasonable 
standard of safety. The maintenance of the means of escape of 
these buildings is also subject to the surveillance of the County 
Council, and such work is carried out under the direction of the 
Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade. 

There are two theatres which enjoy certain privileges and are 
called patent theatres, deriving their grants directly from the 
Crown. Thus three classifications are recognized, viz. : 

(1) Patent theatres. 

(2) Those licensed by the Lord Chamberlain. 

(3) Those licensed by the County Council. 

The applications for these licences have to be made on or 
before October 1st in each year, and the County Council has referred 
to the Theatres and Music Halls Committee the duty of investi- 
gating these applications and submitting recommendations to the 
Council in its capacity as licensing authority. 

Music-halls are dealt with under the Local Government Act 
of 1888, by which the power exercised by the justices in this con- 
nection was transferred to the County Council, and the Council has, 
by standing orders passed in 1896, fixed November as the month 
in which the Council will consider granting licences for music and 
dancing. The passing of the Cinematograph Act in 1909 extended the 
responsibilities in regard to means of escape in the case of fire. In 
London the licensing authority is the County Council, excepting in 
the cases of theatres under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain, 
when licences must be obtained from him. Up to 1913 there 
were 680 places licensed for music and dancing, stage plays and 
cinematographs within the county. 

221 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

FIRE BRIGADE. 

The laws for protecting London against fire have existed for 
centuries, but control gradually became centred in the Metropolitan 
Board of Works, and has since been transferred to the County 
Council. The arrangement arrived at was authorized by the Metro- 
politan Fire Brigade Act of 1865. It is now called the London Fire 
Brigade, and is under the command of the Chief Officer. The cost 
of this service is met partly out of the rates, partly by the fire 
insurance companies and partly by the Government. Fire stations 
are of three classes, namely, full stations, sub-stations and street 
stations ; but the latter classification is, as far as possible, being 
dispensed with. There were within the county, when the last 
return was made in 1913, 96 land stations and 3 river stations, 
together with a repairing depot. Sixteen stations were equipped 
with motors, 67 with horses, 2 sub-stations without horses and 11 
street stations. The writer has, during the past twenty years, 
built a large number of new and remodelled many old stations. The 
organization of each full station and sub-station is centred in the 
watch-room, which is in telephonic communication not only with 
the exchanges but also with the fire-alarms in the streets. The 
fire-alarm system has been found of very great service, but is often 
inconsiderately used by mischievous and irresponsible people. 

The third important service is that dealing with public and 
other amenities. These are parks (with bands), gymnasiums, adver- 
tisement regulation, museums, historical houses and small holdings. 

PARKS. 

The Metropolitan Management Act, 1856, extended to the 
Metropolitan Board of Works the authority to apply to Parliament 
for providing parks, etc. The acquisition in 1857 of the ground 
on which Finsbury Park was formed provided the basis of the 
system. The park was laid out in 1863. 

More active steps were taken on the passing of the Gardens 
in Towns Protection Act in 1863, and in 1866 the Metropolitan 
Commons Act was passed as the result of a serious attack on the 
preservation of the commons. The open spaces which came under 
the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works as a result were 
Blackheath, the Hackney Commons, Clapham Common, Streatham 

222 




THK I'.ATHINC, LAKE. TdOTINC. 




THE LAKE, TOOTING COMMON. 
[Recreation for Londoners of the present and future under the 



of the L.C.C i 

To face p 



GOVERNMENT 

Common, Borstall Heath and Tooting Bee Common. Epping Forest 
was placed under the control of the City Corporation. 

Hampstead Heath was not acquired until 1871. 

It is estimated that in the Metropolitan Police District 
12,000 acres of common land have been put under local manage- 
ment. 

The Open Spaces Act of 1887 extended the powers, and the 
important areas of Wormwood Scrubs, Highbury Fields, Clissold 
Park, Ravenscourt Park and Parliament Hill were acquired under 
this Act. Victoria, Battersea and Kennington Parks and Bethnal 
Green Gardens were placed under the control of the Metropolitan 
Board of Works through the vote for their maintenance being 
defeated in Parliament ; this led to these parks being transferred 
in 1887. 

At the time the London County Council was created there were 
40 such places transferred to them, having an acreage of 2,656. 

Since then various powers have been conferred upon the Council 
which have resulted in raising the number of open spaces to 118, 
with a total area of about 5,100 acres. 

Within the county, Brockwell Park, Wandsworth Park, Avery 
Hill, Eltham Park, Hilly Fields, Borstall Heath, Ladywell recreation 
grounds, Golder's Hill, Waterlow Park and Springfield Park have 
been acquired. Outside the county, Hainault Forest and Marble 
Hill. In addition to these the County Council has taken over a large 
number of disused churchyards, squares and small gardens — mainly 
in the East of London, preserving them as open spaces, where they 
were much needed. 

The production of music by bands and the regulation of games 
are within the authority of the County Council for these parks and 
open spaces controlled by them ; they have contributed considerable 
sums towards the cost of providing 53 parks and open spaces 
maintained by the Metropolitan Borough Councils. The total number 
of places maintained by the City Corporation and the Metropolitan 
Borough Councils is 189, having an aggregate area of about 327 acres. 

MUSEUMS. 

Another service which is an amenity of great importance to 
the public is the management of museums. Museums are within 
the jurisdiction of the Government, London County Council, City 

223 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

Corporation and the Metropolitan Borough Councils, but it is only 
in recent years that the County Council has undertaken work in 
this connection. Horniman's Museum and Library was presented 
by Mr. F. T. Horniman through his son, Mr. S. J. Horniman. The 
museum is divided into two departments, ethnology and zoology. 
Geffrye Museum was acquired in 1911, and has been put to use 
as a furniture museum, and may be regarded as an effort to 
improve the facilities of the craftsmen in the district, many of 
whom are engaged in the cabinet-making industry. 

The principal work of this kind, which has been carried on so 
successfully in recent years, has been the preservation of and recording 
the particulars of buildings of historical and architectural interest ; 
this important work is also carried out by the City Corporation, and 
since 1912 a systematic survey of some portions of London has been 
undertaken : it was, however, interrupted by the war, and the 
publication of the buildings surveyed was suspended. 

The provision of public libraries is governed by the Acts of 1892 
and 1901. In the County of London these powers are administered 
by the Metropolitan Borough Councils. The City Corporation is 
the authority under the Acts in the City of London. 

It was by the Public Libraries Act, 1901, that the Museums 
and Gymnasiums Act of 1891 was extended to London. 



TRAFFIC. 

Another great service in London is that connected with traffic ; 
the power of acquiring existing tramway lines devolved upon the 
County Council in 1911, and various powers have since that time 
been acquired to construct new lines and work the services. The 
Metropolitan Borough Councils have the power of veto on tram- 
way undertakings in their various areas. 

The large generating station at Greenwich was built for the 
Council by the writer in two halves, the first being opened in 
1906 and the second in 1911. It is one of the largest buildings of 
its kind in the world. Its normal capacity will, when fully equipped 
with turbines, be equal to 52,000 k.w. A great central depot 
for repairs and a number of car sheds and sub-stations have also 
been erected by the Council. 

224 



GOVERNMENT 

BRIDGES. 

The Thames bridges within the county, except railway bridges 
and those within the boundary of the City, are in the custody of 
the London County Council ; several of them were originally toll- 
bridges, but were purchased in 1877 by the Metropolitan Board 
of Works ; this defunct authority also built the Victoria, Chelsea 
and Albert Embankments. As an example of the refinements of 
control, it may be noted that the roadways and footways of the 
Victoria Embankment, as well as those of all the Council's bridges 
across the Thames, are under its control, but the footways only of 
the Albert and Chelsea Embankments ; the Grosvenor Road Embank- 
ment (from Millbank to Chelsea) was constructed by H.M. Com- 
missioner of Works about 1850. Westminster Bridge was also built 
by H.M. Government, but these structures were transferred to the 
Metropolitan Board of Works, and have thus come within the 
custody of the London County Council. 

IMPROVEMENTS. 

The great work of street improvements, when they are of more 
than local importance, is generally carried out by the London 
County Council, and is usually authorized by special Acts of 
Parliament. 

The Metropolitan Borough Councils carry out local improve- 
ments generally under Michael Angelo Taylor's Act, a Metropolitan 
Paving Act of 1817. The City Corporation carry out within the 
City most of the street improvements on authority conferred by 
special legislation. 

In some of these cases the London County Council contributes, 
but not in all. 



CARE AND CONTROL OF THE MENTALLY DEFECTIVE. 

The care of lunatics is a service which is carried out by the 
London County Council, the City Corporation and the Metropolitan 
Asylums Board, the latter authority taking care of the harmless 
insane. There are ten asylums controlled by the London County 
Council, one by the City Corporation, and seven by the Metropolitan 
Asylums Board. 

225 r 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

REGULATIVE SERVICES. 

The great regulative services are : construction of buildings, 
town planning, formation and naming of streets, street signs, etc. 

Laws regulating the construction of buildings have been in 
existence since 1604, but the most notable legislation was after 
the Great Fire, when an Act was passed in 1667 " for rebuilding 
the City of London." 

The Act under which buildings are now constructed was that 
passed in 1894 ; this has been considerably amended, notably in 
1905 in regard to the provision of means of escape from existing 
buildings, and 1908, allowing greater cubical extent, and still more 
drastically in 1909, dealing with skeleton steel and reinforced con- 
crete construction, the regulations for which came into force in 
November 1911. The London County Council is the authority for 
administering these Acts in the county : certain sections do not apply 
in the City, and the City Corporation have retained to them the 
power of dealing with dangerous structures. 

There are certain sections in these Acts which enable the 
Council to impose the condition that land in front of any build- 
ing which may be advanced in front of what is known as the 
" general line " must be surrendered and thrown into the street ; by 
this means improvements are frequently made. A most notable 
instance can be seen in the case of Euston Road, which is gradually 
being widened to 100 feet throughout. 

For the formation of streets rules are enacted, and from the 
inauguration of the Council to the year 1913 about 240 miles of 
new streets had been sanctioned. The regulation of lamps and signs 
and the abolition of sky-signs is also dealt with. The naming and 
the numbering of all new streets and the initiation of town planning 
schemes under the Town Planning Act of 1909 were placed upon 
the Council. It is estimated that 12,600 acres of land still remain 
uncovered within the county. An immense volume of work is 
involved in dealing with this important question. In the twenty-four 
years ending 1913 nearly 650,000 buildings were dealt with as new 
buildings or were altered and added to. 

EDUCATION. 

Perhaps the greatest additional responsibility which has ever 
been thrown upon one already heavily charged body was the 

226 



GOVERNMENT 

affiliation of education with the other work of the County Council. 
From 1870, when the Education Act was passed, until 1903, the care 
of education in London was carried on by the London School Board. 
Since that time it has been within the responsibility of the County 
Council. There are still what are called " non-provided " schools, 
which are managed as voluntary schools, but on these there must 
be four foundation managers, together with two others, one repre- 
senting the County Council and the other representing the Council of 
the Metropolitan Borough in which the school is situated. In every 
" provided " school the number of managers and the manner in 
which the schools should be grouped is fixed by the Council of each 
borough, which appoints two-thirds and the County Council one- 
third ; women in the proportion of not less than one-third of the 
whole body of managers must be included. 

There are about 585 elementary schools of the " provided " 
class and about 364 of the " non-provided " schools, besides central 
schools, of Which there are 49 ; also 85 open-air playground classes. 

Provision is also made for teaching the blind, the deaf, and 
those who in other respects are defective, at special schools. This 
authority is given by the Elementary Education (Defective and 
Epileptic Children) Act, 1899, but is a voluntary provision. 

In 1913 there already existed 96 special schools for mentally 
defective children and 36 day and 3 hospital special schools for 
physically defective and invalid children. 

The qualification for admission is the state of mind, between 
imbecile and merely dull or backward. Those qualified as physically 
defective are to be certified as physically " incapable of receiving 
proper benefit from the instruction in the ordinary public elementary 
schools." 

Special art teachers give instruction to the physically defective 
children, and some of the pupils have attained some success in 
this work. 

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 

Authority to maintain industrial schools is conferred on the 
London County Council by the Children Act of 1908, but schools 
of this class were established under an Act of 1866. The children 
received in these schools are generally under fourteen years of age ; 
they are schools of a preventive character, and take care of those 

227 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

who are in danger of criminal contamination. There are ten such 
institutions — nine are of a residential character and one is a day 
industrial school. 

By the Act of 1902-3 the London County Council is empowered, 
after taking the necessary steps, to supply or aid education other 
than elementary education, and in 1904 that body was definitely 
empowered to undertake higher education. At that time there 
were 88 public secondary schools which were not conducted for 
private profit, but the Council has found it expedient to establish 
22 secondary schools ; the fees charged in these 22 schools vary 
from £3 to £30 a year. 

Probably the most drastic change in regard to elementary 
education was that taken in March 1912, when the following 
resolution was passed by the London County Council : 

That the Education Commitee do forthwith prepare and submit a scheme for 
the approval of the Council and the Board of Education, which will within a period 
of fifteen years from March 31, 1912 (by means of an annual programme for 
building new schools and enlarging or structurally improving existing schools) provide 
for reducing to 40 in the case of senior departments, and 48 in the case of infant 
departments, the accommodation of all class-rooms (in public elementary schools, etc.) . 

This arrangement involved a pre-war expenditure of about 
£4,500,000 and continued pressure to give effect to it extending 
over fifteen years in five triennia. Work which practically accom- 
plished the undertaking of the first triennium was carried out, but 
the concentration of effort in other directions due to the war after 
1915 suspended this gigantic undertaking, and since that time 
agitation has begun for the purpose of further reducing the minimum 
number which may be taught in one class. Formerly it was sixty, 
then it suddenly became forty and may become much less ; in any 
case, the resolution of March 1912 will require a stupendous sum to 
give effect to it now, and it would be interesting to know to what 
extent the voters in 1919 understood this question or the liability 
it involved on the future finance of the county. 

During the war many of the smart writers dealing with the 
sayings of the rank and file of our Army wrote down a kind of 
English attributed to those brave men which would have to be 
translated to become intelligible to a great many of their fellow- 
creatures who are supposed to understand the English tongue, 
and still no one seemed to appreciate the absurdity of the situation, 

228 



GOVERNMENT 

as every soldier had been through the educational programme. 
The writer knew, in his youth, a poor country peasant who fought 
at the Battle of Waterloo, and the veteran could certainly not write ; 
but his power of relating his experience was classical if compared 
with the crudities with which the Tower Hamlets conscript of 1918 
chronicled his ideas, according to modern literary men. Was it a 
series of literary pictures of the type of some of those canvases 
which graced the walls at Burlington House in 1919-20 or was it 
a sample of the results of the gospel of education, in the effort to 
raise the standard of citizenship which has been laboured at by 
those representatives who have made the law with so much zeal, 
and the results of which have been administered with such 
sacrifice of time and energy ? Moreover, education costs 8s. 6d. per 
head more in London than the average of Birmingham, Liverpool, 
Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Bristol ! 

NEEDS OF THE FUTURE. 

I do not propose to further detail the kind of service which is 
voluntarily carried out by the sediles of London ; it would have 
been well to have had access to a recent census before making any 
suggestions for the future or comparing the effect on this great 
county of the government of the past decade, and it is much to be 
deplored that immediately after the war election a census was not 
made, whereby we could doubtless have better estimated the value 
of many of our theories as to what was the most urgent want. 
We had, during the war, squandered huge sums of money, built 
war factories all over the country, and in some cases endeavoured 
to accommodate the workers employed in them. Moreover, the 
country was teeming with Colonials and allies, and we were finding 
them shelter, so that a sudden cry for more houses arose, and 
has since become the most pressing demand of the country ; but 
I venture to think the real problem of normality is not known 
with the certainty that a census would have assisted to provide. 

We are too much given to panic on the one hand or procras- 
tination on the other to intelligibly foresee or solve any great social 
question. 

The welter into which municipal government has drifted will 
be appreciated by those who think out the effect of so much 

229 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

conflicting authority in London administration, as outlined in the 
foregoing pages, and which has for better or worse been conferred 
on the several bodies charged with the direction of affairs. 

The City of London enjoys an unbroken heritage of a powerful 
governing body, backed by numerous Acts of Parliament, Royal 
Charters, etc., which provided ample powers to make control 
effective ; but it was not until 1899 that the London Government Act 
attempted to create great authorities in London, and it was expressly 
stated that it was not intended to touch the City of London. The 
result of that legislation is the continued existence of 28 municipal 
borovighs plus the Corporation of London. The London County Council 
had preceded this legislation by eleven years, yet the abolition of the 
vestries and the creation of these 28 boroughs modelled on the City 
precedent of mayor, co-opted aldermen and elected councillors, was a 
great reform. The experiment has attained its majority, but there is 
hardly one writer on the subject of municipal government in recent 
years who has not urged the necessity of still further reform. The 
School Board has indeed ceased to exist, and its duties have been 
transferred to the London County Council, with numerous other 
services at intervals. Education was added to the authority of that 
body by the Education Act of 1903. One can readily recall the 
forcibly expressed opinions of a vast number of those who thought 
it should have been left in the hands of an independent authority. 
Those advocates of autonomy appeared to fear that the burden 
of education would become unmanageable if added to the already 
stupendous duties of the Council, and there is no doubt it greatly 
changed the character of its control of other services, and not in 
every case with the happiest result ; but the disaster of the war 
came at a time when every effort of social advancement, especially 
where in the experimental stage, was badly hit by the revolutionary 
nature of the progress of this " great overturn," and it will require 
many years of wise and restrained work to place such questions in 
the advantageous position of pre-war days. 

The occasion calls for the greatest wisdom and experience which 
is available, and perhaps the opportunity for making a really efficient 
change of system will never present itself again with such obvious 
justification. The doubt that there is enough talent to efficiently 
govern this huge mechanism is often expressed. Unlike the repre- 
sentatives at St. Stephen's, it should be borne in mind that the services 

230 



GOVERNMENT 

are unremunerated in cash ; that they are exacting can hardly 
be questioned ; that they require a high standard of general know- 
ledge is equally obvious. Moreover, it is clear that they want 
extended experience and marked ability to clearly distinguish 
between representative policy and that which is purely departmental 
and administrative. 

It would not be an extreme view to say that the average man 
requires fully three years to get even an elementary knowledge 
of the important public work which has been adumbrated in the 
foregoing pages, yet we find not only the ratepayers but an 
" enlightened Press " striving hard to effect as great a change as 
possible at each election. It would be greatly to the public advantage 
that those who make this kind of work their interest, provided they 
really work at the duties they are returned to do, should be gratefully 
sent back to serve as long as they are competent to act. The voters 
have hardly any voice in the selection of those for whom they 
exercise their choice : the candidates are selected by a caucus, and 
the option left to the voter in practice is either to vote for the 
selected candidate, his opponent, or abstention. 

Recent returns show that in the County Council there is an 
average of over sixty committees and sub-committees sitting each 
week ; some of these deal with an immense volume of work at each 
sitting, and it is a full occupation for earnest representatives 
to properly attend to it, yet they have to submit themselves to 
a considerable outlay and frequently an acrimonious triennial con- 
test — to what end ? Simply to be allowed to give unstinted zeal 
and unlimited energy gratis for the benefit of others, who show 
appreciation by every alternate one failing to be sufficiently interested 
to vote. 

A word here is not misplaced in inviting a thought for the 
officials who spend their lives in a never-ending strain to make good 
government possible and give effect to the policy which is evolved 
by the machinery devised to govern ; they are invariably considered 
fair targets for the Press and the public, and not infrequently are 
tried almost beyond endurance by those who are sent in this aimless 
way to direct their efforts. This is a silent service which does its 
duties economically and with efficiency, and is seldom heard of out- 
side the circumscribed area of operations : yet anyone who dares to 
say a word of appreciation is classed as a bureaucrat. 

231 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

A criticism which ends at destruction is useless, and yet the 
remedy is more difficult than is generally understood. If London is 
extended to what is known as Greater London, some great change 
becomes inevitable. To be practicable it must end in the delegation 
of detail to local authorities and the establishment of a great co- 
ordinating central body with parliamentary duties. 

It would be well, if it were possible, to banish what are generally 
understood as politics from these local services, and the green 
university man without experience is not of signal service in this 
machine. Municipal service will never reach an ideal condition if 
it is simply regarded as the stepping-stone to St. Stephen's ; it 
requires a better and more consistent effort than results from 
fleeting ambition. 

Simplification and good organization are essential, and the 
solution of the problem will probably be found in paying for the 
services of the mayor and other experienced sediles and the giving 
of more power to highly trained officials, who may thus find it 
worth while to devote their lives to the one aim of rendering 
efficient municipal work. 



232 



THE PARKS AND OPEN SPACES 
OF LONDON 

DAVID BARCLAY NIVEN, F.R.I.B.A. 



I 

CHAPTER XV 
THE PARKS AND OPEN SPACES OF LONDON 

IMPORTANCE OF FRESH AIR IN LIFE OF THE NATION. 
During recent years we have had many opportunities to admire 
the clear-eyed, straight-limbed men who, from beyond the seas, 
came to take their part in the great crusade, and we know that 
wholesome open-air life has much to do with the upbringing of 
such hardy offshoots of a virile stock. 

THE PROPORTION OF TOWN BRED TO COUNTRY BRED. 

Recent statistics have given us an insight into the results of 
city upbringing. We are told that in one of our towns 540 men from 
a potential battalion had to fall out before a gun was shouldered 
or a shot fired, and that only 460 were found to be fit for military 
service out of an average 1,000 men. In London the disproportion 
would be even greater, were it not for the steady inflow of healthy 
stock from the provinces. Life in cities, cramped houses, lack 
of green fields and pure air, as surely produce casualties as do the 
hazards of war. Everything possible, therefore, should be done 
to ameliorate conditions (avowedly bad) which are actually worse 
than they appear. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF LONDON SETTING AN EXAMPLE TO 
OTHER CITIES. 

The population of London is equal to the combined white 
population of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and it 
must be manifest that the best which is or can be provided in 
the way of open spaces or parks for recreation is not too much for 
the well-being of its inhabitants or for the upbringing of the 
generations to come. 

235 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

LONDON'S EXISTING OPEN SPACES. 

At first sight London seems to be relatively well provided with 
parks and open spaces, numbering as they do no fewer than two 
thousand. These may be classified as follows : 

(a) Public Open Spaces. — Under the control of, first, the Crown ; 

second, the Government ; and third, the local authorities. 

(b) Permanently Open Spaces. — Not necessarily accessible to 

the public, such as Palace gardens, reservoir areas, 
allotments, parks, cemeteries. 

(c) Private Recreation Grounds. — Comprising golf links and other 

club lands. 

In addition, there is the Thames with its bridges, banks and 
gardens ; streams like the Lea and the Wandle, with their fields 
and meadows, and the Canals, many miles in total length. 

OPEN SPACES BADLY DISTRIBUTED. 

Invaluable as all these spaces may be, they are badly 
distributed — many of them are not available to the public, others 
are difficult of access — and must be greatly added to and co- 
ordinated before we shall be in possession of a park system adequate 
to the needs of the present or the expectations of the future. 

It is of prime importance that the community should, with- 
out unnecessary delay, secure a communal centre in the form 
of a really good civic park to each of the twenty-eight or more 
boroughs comprised within its boundaries, and control a continuous 
open zone right round London, besides having ample playing- 
fields for growing youths within easy reach of all the important 
residential districts, and a generous provision of supervised gardens 
(open-air play centres) for the little children as near as possible 
to their dwellings. 

THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN OF GREATER LONDON. 

This has recently been published by The London Society, and 
shows for the first time an eminently practical proposal for linking 
these spaces together, by parkways, water-ways and by tree-shaded 
boulevards, into a well ordered scheme, such as is essential to the 
well-being and continued health of the people. 

236 




THE LAKE, KENWOOD. 




HAMI'STEAI) HEATH FROM THE AIR. 



(The preservation of Kenwood for the future in the natural complement to t)ic efforts made 
tlie past to preserve Hampstead Heath.) 



To faoe p. -23fi. 



PARKS AND OPEN SPACES 

THE PARKS. 

Civic Centres.— One would like to picture the more important 
of the parks as civic centres. We have such a centre in Hyde Park, 
and there are other parks pertaining to this character ; but few 
have just such qualities as are likely to arouse that civic pride 
which should belong not only to London itself, but in lesser degree 
to each of its boroughs. Of the existing parks, some are merely 
odd-shaped open spaces which, by accident, have been left unbuilt 
upon, often difficult of access, frequently more or less derelict, 
in many of which can still be found tracks and accidental features 
reminiscent of the fields from which they sprang. Few are fully 
developed ; consequently we fail to get from them the pleasure 
which we might expect or to make use of them as we should. 

An Ideal. — In central parks of a civic character there should 
be opportunity for social intercourse and recreation, ample space 
for playing-fields, tennis lawns, running tracks, bowling greens and 
even swimming pools. It should be permissible to walk about 
freely, to sit on the turf or drift through a summer's day, for in 
our ideal all parks and other spaces would be inter-related — linked 
up — an unbroken system. In many cases these links can only 
take the form of tree-planted streets or boulevards. The boulevard 
as a public resort, of ample width, gay with constant movement, 
refreshing in its verdure, having handsome buildings and numerous 
cafes, has so far been practically unknown. In Paris, for a length 
of 20 miles, the great encircling boulevard is 140 feet in width — 
four miles of it are no less than 240 feet wide — while the 
Champs-Elysee is even more — 275 feet. These widths are not 
necessitated by traffic conditions, but are adopted from a desire 
to emphasize the importance of the thoroughfares and to render 
them stately and beautiful. The results obtained fully justify the 
area sacrificed, the boulevards being in reality not only trunkways 
of travel but noble residential regions set in a continuous parkway. 

Scientific Planting. — Within the parks themselves there should 
be more planting of flowering trees and shrubs, not individual 
specimens, but great masses of sweet-smelling bloom. Travellers 
tell us of the festival in Japan at cherry-blossom time ; our 
climate is not dissimilar, and from various causes the atmosphere 
is becoming ever purer : surely, then, we might emulate such 
encouragement of tree-growth. In our parks there might be a 

237 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

series of beauty spots like the Rhododendron Vale at Kew, filled 
with a succession of flowering shrubs and trees, almonds or labur- 
nums, sweet-smelling lilac or cherry trees, with rhododendrons and 
azaleas or even crab-apple or maple trees, and, in addition, there 
should be masses of climbing roses, clematis and wistaria, so that 
each month would have its special concentration of blossom. 
All these, properly disposed, with view-points and vantage 
grounds, and every feature which a man of taste would wish 
to include in his own demesne, might be collectively enjoyed 
by an enlightened democracy : thus would the beauty of London 
be increased in a very simple manner and the pleasure of its people 
greatly enhanced. 

Open-air Cafes. — In the greater parks and other suitable places 
a reasonable number of open-air cafes might very well be permitted. 
The war has caused many changes in our habits ; multitudes have 
seen something of the life of other lands. We have been brought 
into contact with vast numbers of colonials and many thousands 
of refugees, all of whom have helped to spread a liking for the 
conditions which prevail in other lands. 

During the war the Y.M.C.A. canteens proved themselves to 
be an admirable substitute for the public-house. At the front, 
millions appreciated their wholesomeness, and many would welcome 
the permanent establishment of something similar throughout the 
land. The country is ready to support a great movement to this 
end. The war has given the opportunity to try the system on a 
large scale ; it has been proved in a searching test, and the time 
has come for its home application. Conducted in a proper manner, 
with good food and drink, with perhaps pleasant music, and all 
at reasonable prices, these hostelries would be popular places of 
refreshment and recreation, necessary and helpful to the life of a 
well-ordered and contented community. London more and more is 
becoming a holiday centre, and the greater its attractiveness, quite 
apart from the advantages to the citizens, the greater will be 
the return. 

BOULEVARDS AND PARKWAYS. 

Immediately external to some of the central parks there are 
miles of roads, such as Piccadilly, Knightsbridge and Bayswater, 
which might immediately be doubled in apparent width and increased 

238 




DE BEAUVOIR SQUARE, KINGSLAND ROAD, HACKNEY. 




ST. MATTHEWS CHURCHYARD, BETHNAL GREEN. 



To face p. '238. 



PARKS AND OPEN SPACES 

infinitely in importance and attractiveness by pushing back the 
high, prison-like railings, so as to leave an outer strip of ground 
for development as a boulevard garden. Piccadilly would then vie 
with Princes Street in Edinburgh, and Bayswater would partake 
of the character of the Champs-Elysee, and this without costly 
acquisition, but merely by making better use of what we already 
possess. Here would be provided promenades for the people, broad 
paths between well-kept lawns with beautiful flowers against the 
background of existing trees. All should be fully open to the 
public, and well-lighted after nightfall to ensure their being not 
only respected but protected by the people for themselves. 

Provision of Fine Sites for Memorials. — There also would be 
found desirable locations for regimental or other memorials, set to 
terminate the vistas down important streets. Such memorials, to 
the perennial youth of a Right-loving people, should certainly not 
in any sense be funereal, but should partake more of the nature 
of garden adornments. Cut in Portland stone, an allegorical altar, 
a magnificently chiselled vase or a rostral column would soon 
acquire some of the weathered charm of the sculptured pedestal 
which sustains our only beautiful equestrian monument, and would 
be a welcome contrast to the statues of frock-coated statesmen in 
bronze or marble which have so often brought the art of the 
sculptor into disrepute. 

SQUARES AND OPEN SPACES. 

The garden square is peculiarly a London feature. It is to 
be found not only in Bloomsbury and the West End, but elsewhere. 
These gardens originally were private property, railed off and 
reserved for the enjoyment of an exclusive class. Some years ago 
the L.C.C. made a determined attempt to have certain of them 
thrown open to the public, only to find they were in advance of 
the times. Since then much has happened : societies like The 
London Society have come into being, and although the owners of 
many of the squares had reserved rights to build over them at will, 
all recent attempts have been successfully resisted and public opinion 
is not likely again to permit this ; but the matter should never again 
be one of dubiety, nor should it be left to the vigilance of any 
organization to warn the public against threatened encroachment. 
The permanence of all such open areas should be legally assured, 

239 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

and a policy adopted, so that the future use of each space may 
be considered in relation to the needs of the community. 

During the war some of the squares were thrown open to the 
wounded, a privilege they greatly appreciated, but every class should 
have access to many of them. In certain cases the whole character 
of the neighbourhoods in which they are situated has changed. The 
following are examples : Russell Square, which is now a centre of 
boarding-houses and hotels ; Hanover Square, in a district purely 
devoted to business, and Leicester Square, surrounded by places of 
public resort. In such cases the treatment of the squares them- 
selves should be radically altered. 

In the vicinity of Russell Square there is an increasing number 
of people of limited means temporarily or permanently resident. 
During the past years these have comprised nurses, convales- 
cent soldiers, anxious relatives, colonials, refugees, often with time 
hanging heavily, and who, in the heat of a London summer, found 
the streets fatiguing, in most cases treeless, without seats or 
resting places, and with the shady greenness of the square out of 
reach, surrounded by unclimbable railings, and seldom entered 
by the privileged few who have keys. Again, take the case of 
Hanover Square. This is now in the centre of a large business 
district in which there are multitudes of workers — some of them 
delicate girls, toiling long hours in nerve-straining workrooms — 
to whom the cool green square is forbidden ground ; in this case 
especially tantalizing, as it is rare indeed to see a living soul within 
its locked enclosure. 

Surely the time is ripe to communalize such areas : to remove 
the prison-like railings and to treat each square with its encircling 
streets as a public place, with ample provision of seats, wide paths, 
well-kept grass, flowers and shady trees, open for ever to the use 
and enjoyment of all the people. 

Smaller Open Spaces.— London, as the Mother City of millions, 
owes to itself the provision and maintenance in the most useful 
form of as much open space as possible ; not only parks, parkways, 
boulevards and squares, but a multitude of quiet, homely gardens 
or resting places. Manifestly, it is impossible to provide large parks 
everywhere. In certain semi-suburban districts where there are 
neglected corner sites and odd pieces of land — remainders unbuilt 
upon because too expensive for the speculator— these, with ingenuity, 

240 



PARKS AND OPEN SPACES 

could very well be planted and prepared as playing-grounds for 
little children and resting places for their elders. Business enter- 
prise, seeking pecuniary return, has shown us that even derelict 
land can be made attractive and remunerative : the wonderful 
scenic aspect of the exhibitions, the clever planning, the architectural 
value of even slight and temporary buildings, suggest innumerable 
methods of doing this, and in older districts, where there are no 
remaining pieces of land and where houses aggregate forty or more 
to the acre, an enlightened public should now demand that a certain 
number of the houses be demolished and a definite minimum of 
garden playground be provided for the well-being of growing children, 
it being recognized that the streets with their deleterious influence 
can no longer continue to be the only playground. Such a clearance 
has already been made in at least one London borough, a district 
which had become a byword because of the ravages of preventable 
diseases. 

Small Front Gardens. — Again, the tenants of small suburban 
houses to which there are tiny front gardens do not possess, and 
cannot individually be expected to have, the implements necessary 
to keep them in order. Consequently, if these are not to continue 
to be squalid and neglected as they now are, they must be dealt 
with collectively and kept in order at the public expense. 

Roof Gardens. — In addition to all this, how much better off 
would many of the inhabitants be if they could make use of their 
roofs. There are square miles of small dwellings in London each 
possessing a minimum of back garden, mere yards, into many of 
which one can peep when passing by train out of and into London. 
Although mean and inadequate, these are taken full advantage of. 
Flat roofs are not only applicable to great city buildings, but also 
to small houses. Already the possibilities are indicated by the 
success of those constructed over Selfridge's, and in connection with 
some of the hotels, hospitals and elsewhere. With modern con- 
struction there is no reason why urban dwellings should not be 
covered by good permanent, watertight flat roofs, and there is little 
reason to doubt that facilities thus furnished would be greatly 
enjoyed ; it would be possible in hot weather to take meals there, 
and to use the space as a large open-air room, which, properly 
protected, would be an excellent place for children to play in and to 
enjoy the fresh air. 

241 Q 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

Times are changing ; flat roofs covered with asphalte are no 
dearer than pitched roofs, with their complex construction, 
involving the use of much timber, covering dark and useless 
lofts, unget-at-able, never cleaned, a harbourage for litter, dirt 
and germs. 

Conditions in London are improving ; the impervious paving 
of streets and courtyards has greatly reduced the humidity of the 
atmosphere, fogs are less objectionable than formerly and much less 
frequent. Better methods of smoke consumption prevail ; the advent 
of motor traction has brought with it cleaner streets, and the elec- 
trification of railways and many factories has further helped to 
purify the air. 

If, therefore, in addition to playing-fields and public gardens 
(which must generally be some distance away) we could have 
breathing spaces on our roofs, playgrounds over schools, and recre- 
ation gardens on City buildings, it would be the beginning of a 
new state of things ; and who knows but that London of the 
future may be as famous for its roof gardens as ancient Babylon 
was ? Then, " able to see the passing clouds, breathe the free air, 
feel the sunshine and face the four winds of heaven," we might 
realize the full measure of our release from the domination of 
enclosing walls and the depression of never-ending streets. 

Public Gardeners. — For the maintenance of roadside gardens and 
many such purposes there might very well be constituted a corps 
of uniformed gardeners, probably skilled women — something between 
land girls and women police. These attendants, in their daily 
itinerary, would prevent wanton damage, would encourage individual 
effort and exercise a guiding and restraining influence upon the 
children. They should also mow grass, trim shrubs, nail up straggling 
creepers and repair broken fences. They might even attend to 
such little matters as window flower-boxes in districts where there 
are not even small gardens, and thus help to brighten dull streets. 
At a nominal charge they could supply pots and guard rails and 
from time to time replenish earth, furnish plants and seeds, and 
do all that is possible to encourage simple pleasure in the love of 
flowers. All this would greatly brighten the way by which the 
working man goes from his home to his work, and is surely of some 
importance to his physical state and mental outlook. 

The cost of such attentions in some cases might very properly 

242 





TWO VIEWS OF THE ROOF GARDEN ABOVE MR. SELFRIDGE S BUILDING. 

To face p. 24-2 



PARKS AND OPEN SPACES 

be recoverable from the landlords, because of the enhancement in 
the value of their property and because of the general improve- 
ment to the whole neighbourhood. 

Allotments. — The success of the allotment system has been one 
of the surprises of the war, and now that workpeople have more 
leisure they have the more time to devote to this, but the sporadic 
efforts of the years of war should be better organized, as, apart 
from beneficial recreation, the willing labour devoted to the pro- 
duction of food is of great value to the community. There 
might be an almost continuous belt of allotments round London, 
not too far from the homes of the people who live on the out- 
skirts ; but the pieces of land must be of suitable character, laid 
out and prepared upon some considered plan. There is no reason 
why allotments should not be beautiful as well as useful. They 
should be divided by good paths ; the more important of these 
might be marked by some simple form of pergola ; this, covered 
by rambler roses or wistaria, would afford grateful shade in 
summer and be pleasant at all seasons. 

GREEN ZONE OR PERMANENT OPEN SPACE ROUND LONDON. 

But to complete our scheme of parks and open spaces it is 
necessary that there should be secured for all time an irregular belt 
of open space round London, including such splendid existing areas 
as Richmond Park, Banstead Downs, Epping Forest, Hampstead 
Heath and the nearer commons. 

This might be about a quarter of a mile in average width ; 
it would embrace parts of certain streams, the Wandle and the 
Ravensbourne on the south, and the Crane, Brent, Lea and Roding 
on the north. This area could extend not only along valleys, but 
spread out to embrace hill ridges in parts as much as two miles or 
more into open country. In such reservations we should pass 
from the formality of town to the simple freedom of meadows, 
and finally to tilled fields. Through these there would be quiet 
ways, rustling Avoods and even hospitable farms ; there also would 
be glades for the children, resting places for their elders, lawns and 
pavilions for sport, every natural feature preserved and every 
view-point maintained. Water is a never-failing attraction ; valleys 
and the lower ground which are undesirable for building are often 
eminently suitable for pleasure treatment. By some of these 

243 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

streams can still be found the " willow herb and many wild 
flowers : we can walk under oaks and birches, between old thorn- 
trees— over which trail honeysuckle, bramble and the wild rose — 
listen to the song birds while wild pigeons coo from the tree-tops." 
Scenes and country sounds like these and the scent of wild flowers 
give pleasure to young and old alike. Here citizens in their 
thousands at every season, on high days and holidays, would 
enjoy the beauties of nature without costly journeyings or fatiguing 
disabilities. 

Not only would this be a never-failing source of pleasure, but, 
having regard to its own attractions and in view of the enhanced 
value of all surrounding land, it might be expected to become 
of the greatest importance in all schemes for town expansion ; 
contiguous thereto, at the present time, the authorities might 
very well inaugurate a considerable section of their housing pro- 
posals and demonstrate municipal development likely to create a 
standard to be aimed at in less favoured suburbs. 

Here, too, might very properly be found drill grounds and 
locations for aerodromes and airship stations, which, in convenient 
relation to arterial roads and to suburban and other railways, must 
soon be provided for the development of aviation if fullest use is to 
be made of its potentialities. 

Adjoining this great open space there should also be a circum- 
ferential boulevard, providing direct communication between the 
different aerodromes, linking up radial roads and tending greatly 
to the better distribution of traffic, besides being of military impor- 
tance. With such improved intercommunication we might hope to 
see many great institutions and hospitals decentralized and rebuilt 
in healthful positions, thus freeing congested sites in London greatly 
needed for other purposes and inaugurating a system of metro- 
politan hospitals and curative institutions in which there would 
remain in London itself little more than casualty stations and 
receiving houses. 

The cost of the acquisition of this great green belt round London 
should not be prohibitive ; much of the land can be bought at 
agricultural prices, while improved values can be calculated upon, 
for considerable portions to be devoted to building. Nor would 
it ever be necessary to turn the whole area into non-productive 
reservations ; much of it could still be cultivated. From this 

244 




WATERMBADS, MITCHAM. 

[The banks of the smaller streams round London are shown as Riverside Ueservations on The 
I. nil, Ion Society's Development Plan for 1. mi, hoi of the Future.) 



PARKS AND OPEN SPACES 

also rent would be derived, but such portions as are once dedi- 
cated to be open space should be sterilized from the possibility of 
encroachment— a great communal estate — secure for all time to the 
use and enjoyment of the people of London. 

THE RIVER THAMES. 

Having dealt with the provision and improvement of parks 
and gardens and the proposed surrounding zone, we may now 
consider the earliest and by far the most important of our open 
spaces, viz. the Thames, with its banks, bridges and gardens — 
a noble waterway of which any city would be proud ; this not only 
drains the soil, but with its recurring tides extracts the polluted 
and fetid atmosphere from mean streets. Once London's greatest 
thoroughfare, it is indeed an indestructible asset of never-ending 
fascination ; devoted to commerce below London Bridge, it should 
have embankments above this on both sides, a fit setting for 
stately buildings, with gardens, turf and verdure — the waterfront 
of a noble city. 

We are told that Napoleon, when at St. Helena, amused himself 
by planning improvements in London. He would make, he said, " a 
grand thoroughfare from St. Paul's to the Thames and wide streets 
along the river on either side, would build more bridges, and would 
remove from the vicinity of public buildings the mean structures 
which disfigure them." Now, after one hundred years, we still need 
further wide streets and embankments and more bridges — not mere 
connecting links, but noble structures, amply planned, where, enhanced 
by the open view, one could linger by the ever-flowing water. As 
did the countryman who saw London " clothed by the changing 
seasons, now ringed in green, now shrouded in white ; on summer 
mornings when it lay clearly defined like a finished model, and the 
sun sparkling on its vanes set the long lines of windows ablaze in 
the Houses of Parliament and turned the river into a riband of 
polished steel ; or, again, when the cupola of St. Paul's and the 
Clock Tower at Westminster pierced upwards through a level of 
fog, as though hung in mid-air, or when mists, shredded by a south 
wind, swirled and writhed about the roof-tops until the city itself 
seemed to take fantastic shapes and melt to a substance no more 
solid than the mists themselves." 

The Tributary Streams. — Besides the valley of the Thames there 

245 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

are other large spaces containing tributary streams, such as the 
Lea and the Wandle, ripe for imaginative development. The River 
Lea, in parts still wonderfully beautiful, but little bridged, is the 
dividing line between groups of rapidly growing suburbs, which 
tend to close in upon it. On the low ground there are numerous 
factories, and in the near future there Avill be many more. The 
whole district is ready for town planning, where should be displayed 
a happy relationship between villages and their working and 
recreative areas. Workpeople's cottages would naturally occupy the 
higher ground, while factories would occupy the lower land with its 
road, rail and water facilities. Between these would be planned tree- 
shaded roads, leading pleasantly by flowing water, with recreation 
fields, allotments and public gardens, a communal entity in its 
co-ordination. 

The Canals. — The canals and their banks and quays, where 
within London, form quite an important section of its open space, 
and must be considered in any comprehensive scheme for its beau- 
tification. We cannot but suppose that the canal-owners would 
welcome any proposal to improve the vicinity of their property : 
a canal in certain cases might become a central feature to a park- 
way, and the occasional passing of barges — as in Dublin — would 
only give it added interest. In hot weather children are irresist- 
ibly attracted by the cool canals, and in the dog-days one can 
almost calculate on a succession of letters to the newspapers from 
people shocked by the needless drowning calamities which there take 
place ; in due course this is followed by a leading article insisting 
that the time has come for steps to be taken to prevent such 
fatalities, but as by then the hot weather has been followed by 
the usual thunderstorm, the agitation dies away. How much 
better it would be to provide the children with occasional shallow 
bays in which they could sail their boats— offshoots from the 
main canal, deepening into bathing pools, in which they might 
safely be left to follow their bent and disport in cool water to 
their hearts' content. The vicinity of many of the smaller streams 
and waterways which flow through London might in parts be made 
as safe and beautiful as the valley garden at Bournemouth, charming 
playgrounds for the children, with the living interest of flowing 
water to lure them from the dangers of the dusty streets. 

Some cities have long been popular by reason of their open- 

246 



PARKS AND OPEN SPACES 

air amenities and owing to their having been well laid-out. In 
London the people may not yet have fully caught the out-of-door 
spirit, but the throngs which on Sundays and fine afternoons parade 
in Hyde Park and in every open space give proof of the increasing 
vogue of such enjoyments. Humanity is very sensitive to its 
surroundings, therefore not only should good houses be provided 
for the people in pleasant locations, with plenty of light and air, 
but if traffic facilities are convenient and ample opportunity is 
given for recreation and physical development, the town dweller of 
the future will be a contented citizen, more in harmony with his 
environment : healthy and fit, an asset of the utmost value in a 
well-ordered community. 



247 



LONDON AS THE HEART OF 
THE EMPIRE 

THE EARL OF MEATH, P.C., K.P. 



CHAPTER XVI 

LONDON AS THE HEART OF THE EMPIRE 

The Great European War of 1914 to 1919, which was really waged 
by Germany for the destruction of the British Empire, though 
ostensibly for other reasons, far from carrying out the designs of 
its promoters, has ended in adding enormously to its extent and, 
what is of far greater importance to the citizens of the Empire, in 
consolidating and strengthening its component parts. 

Had it not been for this war, it is doubtful what length of time 
would have been needed to prepare public opinion within the 
Empire for the acceptance of an Imperial War, and then Peace, 
Cabinet, which is now practically a fait accompli. 

It was the magnificent services rendered by the people of India 
during the world conflict, which carried their victorious arms into 
Europe, Africa and Asia, which led to the appointment of a 
distinguished Indian as Under-Secretary of State for India, 
with a seat in the House of Lords, and to the extraordinary 
advances towards self-government made by the British Govern- 
ment and Parliament in the constitution of India and its forms 
of government. 

Before the war, in Africa alone, the British Empire covered 
some 2| millions of square miles. When the great conflict ended 
she had added some 1,200,000 square miles to the above, making a 
total of 3,700,000 square miles in Africa subject to British Imperial 
rule. It is impossible to say what will be the net increase in land 
area of the British Empire when the final account of her territorial 
assets is presented to the world, for all these matters are still in 
a condition of flux ; for instance, no one knows whether the Empire 
is to retain any part of her gigantic conquests in Mesopotamia, and 
if so, how much, or which, and how many, of the Empire conquests 

251 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

in the Pacific are to be retained by the Mother Country, Australia 
or New Zealand. What is perfectly certain is that the map-makers 
will shortly have to scrap all their most recent publications and 
produce entirely new ones, and that all the statistics and information 
in regard to the British Empire will have to be re-drafted. 

Before the war, the population of the British Empire was cal- 
culated to amount to over four hundred millions (400,000,000), which 
was about one-fifth, or 22 per cent., of the inhabitants of the globe, 
and its extent was reckoned as about 12,000,000 square miles. 

These figures will have to be enormously increased. Before 
the war, the nations outside the British Empire possessing the 
largest extent of territory were Russia (8,000,000 square miles), 
United States (3,623,000 square miles), Brazil (3,220,000), and those 
possessing the largest population outside the British Empire were 
China (350,000,000), Russia (130,000,000) and the United States 
(about 100,000,000)— all less than the British Empire, with its 
population of 400,000,000 and its land area of 12,000,000 
square miles. 

Now, all these figures will have to be revised, leaving the British 
Empire without a rival in the world in these respects. 

All great political organizations possess a capital, of which they 
are usually immensely proud, and they endeavour in their respective 
degrees to improve and beautify and enlarge it, striving to place 
it beyond the possibility of rival competition in these respects. 
The only political organization which does not officially possess 
a capital, though practically it does, is the British Empire. 

The object of this essay is to claim that, since the British Empire 
has received such enormous additions of population, of territory 
and of consolidation as the result of the war, it is time that London 
should be officially recognized by the Empire as its capital, so that 
the whole Empire may take a pride in its beautification and develop- 
ment as the centre of the greatest political organization the world 
has ever known. I would suggest that with this view the Lord 
Mayor and Corporation of the City of London and the County 
Council of London should be empowered to co-opt on their respective 
governing bodies leading representatives, so long as they reside 
in London, of the Overseas Dominions, of India and of the Crown 
Colonies, so that all parts of this great confederation of States 
which is called the British Empire may feel that they possess a 

252 



THE HEART OF THE EMPIRE 

governing interest in the management of their great capital, and 
that each citizen of the Empire, when he visits London, may feel 
that this vast city, containing in the area known as " Greater 
London " 7 \ millions of inhabitants, and its wonderful historical, 
literary, architectural and scientific traditions, is part and parcel 
of him or her, and not a strange though interesting city like Paris 
or Rome. 

The time would appear opportune for such a move. 

A Bill has just been passed by Parliament entitled the " British 
Empire Exhibition." The British Government under this Bill 
have taken a step which I believe to be unique in its history, or 
in the history of any previous British Government. They have 
undertaken to guarantee, under conditions, to the extent of 
£100,000, the expenses of running an Exhibition which is to be 
held in 1922 for promoting the general economic and commercial 
interests of the Empire. 

This, together with the Government official recognition of the 
Empire Movement in 1916, demonstrates a somewhat rapid advance 
towards a realization of the overwhelming importance in world 
politics of Imperial sentiment, and with such a step as I suggest in 
regard to the Corporation of the City of London and to the County 
Council, would, I believe, hasten materially the unification of the 
British Empire and greatly strengthen the Imperial sentiment 
throughout the vast dominions of H.M. King George V. 

Already the principal self-governing Dominions are establishing 
themselves in palatial buildings, worthy of the great rising popula- 
tions they represent, in the most important thoroughfares of London, 
the last of which is the new home of Canada which is to be erected 
on the site of Morley's Hotel, Trafalgar Square, beneath the shadow 
of Nelson, whose life and death made possible the expansion of the 
Empire to its present wonderful proportions. 

The formation of a permanent Imperial Peace Cabinet means 
that the most eminent statesmen of our great Overseas Dominions 
will constantly be arriving, residing in and leaving the capital 
of the Empire. Formerly these distinguished men, as a rule, never 
visited London, except, perhaps, as private individuals coming back 
to see the homes in which they and their ancestors were born ; now, 
they will arrive invested with all the authority and glamour of 
high station and of representative rank. The position within the 

253 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

Empire at present occupied by India, with its vast population of 
300,000,000 and the quickened means of transport, means that 
thousands of our fellow Indian subjects, including their ancient 
princes and nobles, will visit the capital of their Empire, and will 
either be impressed favourably or the reverse by the opinions they 
will form of London and its inhabitants. 

Is it not, therefore, in the interests of the Empire that the 
capital should rise to the height of its great position, and so order 
its affairs that these distant citizens of the Empire may return to 
their several homes proud of their capital and of their position as 
citizens of the British Empire ? 

Almost all the capitals of Europe which used to be surrounded 
by fortifications erected for their protection have destroyed them, 
and turned them into rings of beauty surrounding the cities, com- 
posed of gardens, parks, avenues and parkways joining open spaces 
together. The American cities, although not possessed of fortifi- 
cations, have in many cases done the same thing. There is nothing 
except expense to prevent us in London from copying this example, 
by making a continuous avenue, broken by parks and gardens, 
uniting the numerous beautiful open spaces we possess on all sides 
outside London. 

Inside, the Euston Road and its continuations could with little 
alteration be turned into a beautiful Ring like that at Vienna or 
Cologne. It should always be remembered that London attracts 
the refined, the literary, the educated by its antiquity and traditions, 
and that no greater mistake could be made than to destroy these 
attractions. No amount of modern embellishments would com- 
pensate for the loss of historic houses, streets, alleys, churches and 
monuments. But if care be taken to lay no unholy hand on the 
London of historic interest, there are miles and miles of common- 
place brick boxes which call themselves houses, the removal of which 
would be a loss to no man or woman of sense or sensibility. There 
is ample scope in these squalid and uninteresting streets for the 
work of the modern and enlightened architect. 

As regards open spaces, there are few capitals in the world 
more plentifully supplied than is London, with its health-giving 
lungs and oxygen-producing trees and foliage. If the reader will 
take the trouble to consult the pages of the pre-war annual reports 
of the Metropolitan Public Garden Association, issued from its 

254 




EBURY SQUARE GARDEN, PIMLICO. 

(A London Square maintained by the Metropolitan Public Guillens Association ut the cost of 

the link,- of Westminster.) 




ST. KATHARINE COLEMAN CHURCHYARD, FENCHURCH STREET, E.C. 
(One of the threatened City churchyards.) 



THE HEART OF THE EMPIRE 

office at Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, S.W. 1, it will be 
seen that in 1883 there were rather over 4,000 acres of public spaces 
within the area that was afterwards formed into the County of 
London, for its population at that time of nearly 4 millions, or 
1 acre of public space to 950 people ; and that twenty years later 
(1902), whilst the population of the County of London had increased 
by about 18 per cent, to 4| millions, the public open spaces had 
increased in the same period by no less than 50 per cent., to over 
6,000 acres, thereby reducing the number of people per acre of 
public space from 950 to 750. 

The provision of open spaces in and around London is 
largely due : 

1. To the generosity of the Crown. 

2. To the Corporation of the City of London, which between 

the years 1873 and 1890 possessed the right to levy a 
duty of 4d. a ton, for London improvements, on coal 
brought to London. 

3. To the Metropolitan Board of Works before 1889. 

4. Since that date to the London County Council. 

5. To the Middlesex County Council. 

6. To the different Borough and Urban District Councils and 

Vestries in and around London. 

7. To the propaganda work and practical activities since 1883 

of the Metropolitan Public Garden Association and of 
the somewhat older organization, the Commons (and 
Footpaths) Preservation Society — which, as its name, 
indicates, deals mainly with commons in all parts of 
the country — and in a lesser degree to the Kyrle 
Society. 

Since 1902 this rate of increase within the County of London 
has not been maintained, chiefly because the area of land available 
either for public spaces or for building purposes is a rapidly 
diminishing quantity and has risen in price. For these and 
other reasons, the present public open-space area in the County 
of London, viz. about 6,650 acres, shows only a moderate 
increase of about 10 per cent, since 1902, but as the population 
is estimated to have remained stationary at about 4£ millions, 

255 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

the number of people per acre of public space has been further 
reduced from 750 to about 680. 

In the rapidly expanding suburban districts adjacent to the 
county boundary, which, with London proper, go to form the area 
known as Greater London (with its 7j millions of people), to which 
the attention both of the Association and of local authorities has 
been irresistibly drawn, there has been, however, quite an abnormal 
growth of public spaces since 1902, to meet the needs of the constant 
influx of population. Moreover, in these suburbs are to be found 
a number of large Royal parks and other spaces, which Londoners 
frequent in large numbers, especially at holiday times ; e.g. Richmond 
Park (2,350 acres), Epping Forest (5,375 acres), Wimbledon Common 
(1,200 acres), Hampton Court and Bushey Parks (1,800 acres), 
Kew Gardens (288 acres), Alexandra Park (172 acres), etc. Conse- 
quently, as regards public spaces, London compares very favourably 
with other large cities, both at home and abroad. Paris, within 
the city, has only about 560 acres of public open spaces, which 
gives the very poor average of 1 acre of public space to 5,300 people. 
But on the confines are the two large areas known as the Bois de 
Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, together amounting to about 
4,500 acres, and if we include them the proportion becomes much 
improved. Moreover, the gradual conversion of the Paris fortifi- 
cation belt into open spaces should make a material difference. 
Berlin possesses State and municipal parks and open spaces amount- 
ing to nearly 1,300 acres, which provide 1 acre of public space to 
about 1,600 people. Thus London is well able to hold its own. 
But, as in other cities, the parks and open spaces in London are 
very unevenly distributed. Whilst in the borough of Shoreditch 
there are only 10 acres of public spaces for its 90,000 inhabitants, 
a neighbouring borough, Hackney, with only double the number 
of people, possesses sixty times the amount of open space, viz. 
618 acres. But these disproportions are rectified to a considerable 
extent by ease of communication. There is, however, a feature 
in connection with the open spaces which London possesses which 
is not to be found, at least to anything like the same extent, in 
other cities either at home or abroad : I mean the large number of 
squares and similar enclosures and of disused churchyards which 
are to be found scattered all over its surface, and which number 
about 430 and 320 respectively. About 50 of the former class and 

256 




CHRISTCHURCH t'HI 
(Much needed i 



RCHYARD, BLACKFRIAB 

a poor and crowded locality.) 




;t. botolph"s, aldgate, churchyard. 

[One of the threatened City churchyards.) 



To face 11 256. 



THE HEART OF THE EMPIRE 

120 of the latter have been converted into public gardens, chiefly 
through the instrumentality of the Association, and are most useful 
sources of enjoyment close to the homes or the work of the people. 
All these small spaces, whether open to the public or not, form 
important lungs and air-holes in the midst of houses, the value of 
which cannot be overestimated, and their trees, flowers, grass and 
other foliage, which all can see, provide refreshing relief to the 
tired eye. It is said, with a good deal of truth, that there is scarcely 
a street in London from which a tree is not visible. These small 
areas are the envy of our American visitors, who often complain 
of the absolutely solid manner in which New York and other cities 
of the U.S.A. have been built up. An American friend wrote to 
me : " Apparently in England it is not attempted to secure land 
upon which buildings have been erected ; we do this constantly in 
our country. In Philadelphia we have secured a number of our 
city spaces through acquiring ground with buildings on it and 
then razing the buildings. While Central Park (New York), 800 
acres, cost 5 million dollars, three small spaces on the east side, 
covering not quite 10 acres, cost 5| million dollars. It will be seen 
how enormously New York has had to pay in order to get a few 
small open spaces." This is striking testimony to the supreme 
importance of these smaller grounds, and the utmost care should 
be taken to preserve them in connection with any rebuilding schemes. 
There is some attractive force which London possesses in a greater 
degree than any other city, and which causes British citizens all 
over the world to love the Empire's capital above all other cities, 
and to return to it, whenever opportunity offers, with never-failing 
joy and delight. It is, I venture to think, its homeliness which 
is London's greatest attraction. This sense of home is due in no 
small measure to the numerous small squares and gardens to which 
I have alluded ; to the comparatively narrow but clean and well 
lighted streets, with their shops and houses not too lofty and easily 
distinguishable on either side ; to the many methods of locomotion, 
which renders it a simple matter to get from one part to another, 
and to the distinctive but unobtrusive characteristics of its com- 
ponent parts. All these features tend to prevent that fatigue and 
monotony which sometimes attaches to other cities which may 
be of greater grandeur, but which often do not inspire any feelings 
of affection. Great care should therefore be taken that these price- 

257 R 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

less advantages should not be destroyed by reconstruction and re- 
building. Public convenience should be paramount in any such 
schemes, and nothing should be done which would tend to displace 
or to drive away trade and business, upon which the welfare of the 
capital depends. 

In any reconstruction which may be made, let us bear in mind 
that we should desire to make London a real home for the children 
of the Empire — a home to which they all may desire to return ; 
and that in making it a clean, sweet, sanitary and beautiful home 
we should do nothing which may destroy or weaken those inde- 
scribable qualities associated with home in the mind of every true 
man and woman — qualities more often to be found in modest 
surroundings than in the dwellings of the millionaire. 



258 



THE SMOKE PLAGUE OF LONDON 

The late SIR WILLIAM RICHMOND, K.C.B., R.A. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE SMOKE PLAGUE OF LONDON 

During the last hundred years England has attained a foremost 
position in many phases of sanitary science, and in no part of the 
country has greater progress been made in this direction than in 
London. The River Thames is carefully protected from pollution, 
and every streamlet and ditch in the Home Counties is carefully 
watched to prevent the pollution of drinking water. Effective 
measures have been devised for dealing with the disposal of sewage, 
for controlling the spread of infectious diseases and for protecting 
the worker from the evils of sweated labour or unhealthy conditions 
of employment. With commendable persistency, too, the authori- 
ties responsible for safeguarding the public health have aimed at 
a high standard of efficiency so far as the purity of our food 
supplies is concerned. In short, whether he buys or sells, produces, 
distributes, or merely consumes the products of the industry of 
others, it has been the constant aim of Parliament to ensure for 
the individual protection against nuisances and conditions tending 
to lower vitality or to retard the social and physical development 
of the community. 

In view of such evidences of the recognition of the importance 
of sanitary science in its wider aspects, it is extraordinary that no 
whole-hearted effort has been made to deal with the all-important 
subject of the purity of the air. This is the one matter that touches 
every town-dweller — high or low, rich or poor, young or old— and 
yet it has been consistently shelved by a long succession of Govern- 
ments, each professedly interested in the health of the nation. 

Indeed, it is not too much to say that the failure of Parliament 
to provide for the abatement of preventable air pollution has been 
a blot upon the annals of public health legislation. 

261 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

It is true that lime and alkali works have been subjected to 
stringent conditions imposed to prevent the dissemination of harmful 
acid fumes. This is as it should be, and it shows that it is not 
impossible to devise conditions of working, even in the case of 
highly specialized industries, without crippling trade. It is also 
true that when contamination of the air arises from insanitary 
neighbourhoods or from dust-heaps the nuisance is promptly sup- 
pressed. Such sources of atmospheric pollution are infinitesimal 
when compared with the vitiation of the atmosphere by the 
ceaseless outpourings of smoke, sulphurous fumes and dust from 
the myriad household chimneys and factory shafts of London. 

Day in and day out the pitiless rain of grime continues, but 
no serious effort has ever been made by the Department of State 
charged with the duty of protecting the public health to abate 
the evil since that evil assumed serious proportions. 

It cannot be said that no demand has ever been made for the 
abatement of the coal smoke nuisance, for at intervals during the 
last seven centuries the voices of reformers or far-seeing visionaries 
have been raised to demand its abolition. 

To appreciate the position and to visualize accurately the series 
of failures of the nation to free itself from the incubus of this 
veritable " old man of the sea " it is necessary to study the succes- 
sive stages in the history of the evil. 

As far back as the year 1228 a thoroughfare in the City was 
known as Sacoles (Sea-Coles) Lane, so that even at that early date 
there must have been a considerable trade in the commodity. 
Before Edward I had occupied the throne for a year, the use of coal 
was prohibited in London as being " prejudicial to human health," 
and even smiths were compelled to burn wood. 

This early and drastic effort failed to prevent the use of coal, 
and Mr. R. L. Galloway records, in his History of Coal Mining, 
that the " nobles, prelates and others " going to London to attend 
Parliament were greatly annoyed by the increasing smoke and took 
the lead in demanding that the use of coal should be prohibited. 
In consequence of this agitation a Royal Proclamation was issued 
in 1306 prohibiting artificers from using coal in their furnaces. This 
was followed in 1307 by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer, which 
was instructed to "inquire of all such who burnt sea-cole in the 
City or parts adjoining and to punish them for the first offence with 

262 




THE SMOKE PLAGUE: SUNDAY, 11 A.M. 




THE SMOKE PLAGUE : MONDAY, 12 NOON. 
(Two views in a manufacturing town.) 



THE SMOKE PLAGUE 

great fines and ransoms, and, upon the second offence, to demolish 
their furnaces." The early coal smoke abatement crusaders at 
all events were whole-hearted in their efforts to stop a growing 
nuisance ! 

But it was inevitable that the rapid destruction of forests for 
the smelting of iron and for use as fuel should, notwithstanding 
all attempts at repression, lead to a correspondingly rapid develop- 
ment of the coal trade. Now and then protests were raised, and 
in 1578 the Worshipful Company of Brewers undertook in a petition 
to the Privy Council to use only wood in the breweries near West- 
minster Palace because the Queen " findeth hersealfe greately greved 
and anoyed with the taste and smoke of the Sea-Coles." 

John Evelyn, in his Fumifugium, written in 1670 at the com- 
mand of Charles I, describes the " infernal Smoak " of London in 
sentiments, if not in language, to which many sufferers of the present 
day would whole-heartedly subscribe. He says : 

That Hellish and dismall cloud of sea-coal is not only perpetually imminent 
over her head, but so universally mixed with the otherwise wholesome and excellent 
aer, that her inhabitants breathe nothing but an impure and thick Mist, accompanied 
with a fuliginous and filthy vapour which renders them obnoxious — corrupting the lungs, 
and disordering the entire habits of the bodies, so that Catharrs, Phthsicks, Coughs 
and Consumptions rage morq in this city than in the whole earth besides. 

The next stage in the growth of the nuisance was marked by 
the invention and development of the steam engine. This speedily 
led to an enormous increase in the consumption of coal, and was 
followed in 1819 by the appointment of a Parliamentary Committee 
charged to inquire how far it was practicable to compel persons 
using steam engines and furnaces to erect them in a manner less 
prejudicial to public health and public comfort. The Committee 
reported that " the nuisance so universally and so justly complained 
of may at least be considerably diminished, if not altogether 
removed." In a subsequent report the Committee expressed the 
view that smoke-preventing appliances existed which could and 
should be used. 

These conclusions have been frequently endorsed during the 
last hundred years and have never been gainsaid, but for some 
incomprehensible reason no practical step has yet been taken to 
give full effect to them. In 1843 a second Select Committee urged 
the need of legislation to prohibit the production of smoke from 

263 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

furnaces and steam engines. Still a third Committee reported to 
Parliament in 1845 that " opaque smoke issuing from steam engine 
chimneys may be so abated as no longer to be a public nuisance." 

Seventy-five years passed before the Government could be 
persuaded again to inquire into the subject, when, in 1914, the 
Local Government Board appointed a Departmental Committee on 
Smoke Abatement, under the Chairmanship of Lord Newton. The 
inquiries of this Committee, interrupted by the late war, have 
recently been resumed. In the meantime, the Government rested 
content with the introduction into several statutes, dealing with 
railways and public health, of provisions giving to various sanitary 
authorities feeble and totally inadequate powers to deal with 
smoke nuisances. The exercise of these powers was thwarted 
by technical difficulties involving proof that the smoke emitted 
was black in colour or, worse still, involving the necessity of 
establishing that the furnace or steam engine concerned did not 
" as far as practicable " consume the smoke generated during 
the combustion of coal. 

It soon became apparent that such powers contained loop- 
holes which, in practice, rendered them almost valueless. Few 
sanitary authorities even pretended to take any steps whatever to 
suppress smoke nuisances. Some, seeing the worthless nature of 
the Government provisions, went to Parliament for special powers 
applying only to their own areas. Others were discouraged by the 
difficulties of securing a conviction and by the knowledge that the 
fines inflicted for an infraction of the law were so paltry as to con- 
stitute no deterrent to offenders. Coal was cheap, and it was soon 
found by the owners of factories that it was easier to pay a rarely 
imposed fine of five shillings than to trouble their heads about the 
pall of smoke incessantly emitted from their chimney shafts. More- 
over, the officials of many local authorities were gravely handicapped 
in the performance of their duties by the fact that among the 
members of the Councils employing them were representatives of 
the firms who were the worst offenders. They were further dis- 
couraged by the apparent absence of public opinion upon the matter. 
People, indeed, had come to accept, either as a proof of prosperity 
or as a necessary and unavoidable evil, the continuance of a foul 
atmosphere. 

In these circumstances, factory chimneys belched out smoke 

264 



THE SMOKE PLAGUE 

in an ever-increasing volume, and, as London grew, the smoke from 
the chimneys of private dwelling-houses sensibly added to the pre- 
vailing gloom. The London County Council in 1891 succeeded in 
applying to the Metropolis the smoke abatement provisions which 
had applied to the rest of the country since the Public Health Act, 
1875, was placed upon the Statute Book. But, for the reasons 
already indicated, these provisions were not enforced and they 
speedily became a " dead-letter." Winter fogs grew in density 
and duration. They often lasted for many days, and it was only 
on rare occasions that London enjoyed a really smokeless day from 
November to February. 

I felt that the time had come to arouse the public to the need 
for action. The obvious step was to form an independent body, 
untrammelled by local influences and determined to see that the 
law of the land, with all its shortcomings, should be obeyed and 
that it should be strengthened where experience showed that 
it required amendment. Accordingly, in 1899, the Coal Smoke 
Abatement Society was formed. Since that date the history of 
the movement has been the story of this little Society's work. 

Our early efforts were met with nothing but indifference or 
derision, and even well-wishers informed us that attempts to arouse 
interest in the work were doomed to fail. The law had become 
a closed book in the case of nearly all metropolitan local authorities, 
and officials, at first, either ignored our existence or plainly hinted 
that they regarded our organization as the outcome of the efforts 
of a few self-advertising " quacks and busybodies." The Society, 
therefore, had a fourfold mission to perform. It had to arouse 
the public conscience to the urgent ■ necessity of taking steps to 
abate the evil of coal smoke from the point of view of the health 
and comfort of the community ; it had to demonstrate to manu- 
facturers that black smoke, so far from being a necessary accom- 
paniment of prosperity, was ocular proof of an avoidable waste of 
valuable fuel ; it had to encourage the inventors and makers of 
smoke-preventing furnaces, devices, fuels and grates not to accept 
the past indifference of the Legislature and the supineness of most 
Local Authorities as conclusive evidence that nothing could be 
done ; and, finally, it had to stimulate local authorities to a sense 
of the responsibilities they owed to the general public in protecting 
the atmosphere from unnecessary and unlawful pollution. 

265 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

It soon became apparent that in its crusade the Society had 
behind it the overwhelming support of sanitary and engineering 
experts and also of medical men. Physicians of such world-wide 
eminence as Sir Thomas Barlow, Sir James Crichton-Browne, Sir 
Frederick Treves and Sir William Bennett have championed the 
cause, their views being ably summed up by Sir James Crichton- 
Browne, who said of coal smoke that 

it injured the health of the people, both directly and indirectly. It was charged 
with noxious chemical vapours which poisoned the blood, with a grimy compost that 
blocked up the pores of the skin, with gritty particles that lacerated the mucous 
membranes, and directly led to illnesses such as anaemia and tuberculosis. The 
indirect action of smoke in shutting out the beneficent sunlight was equally grievous, 
because light was the cardinal condition of animal and vegetable life. Anyone who 
filched away, by creating a pall of smoke, this primary necessary of life was guilty 
of a grave offence against the community and ought to be mulcted in severe penalties. 

It was proved times out of number, by information collected 
by the Society, that while fogs seriously affect the health, such 
visitations are far more injurious when heavily laden with soot 
and dust, and that under such conditions the death-rate is apt to 
assume alarming proportions. It was also shown from official data 
furnished by the Meteorological Council that, owing to smoky fogs, 
London only received about one-third of the amount of sunshine 
enjoyed in districts not affected by its smoke ; it was also estab- 
lished by Sir Napier Shaw that the abolition of coal smoke would 
cut off 20 per cent, of fogs altogether, besides materially reducing 
the intensity and duration of all other London fogs. 

The smoke of London is distributed over the country-side to 
a surprising extent. I had experience of this once when staying 
at Lockinge, near Wantage, 64 miles from town. On an unusually 
hot summer's day there travelled up with the south-east wind dense 
clouds of smoke, which finally obscured the rolling downs, the trees 
and the copses within a small distance from any point of observation. 
The moment the thick veil reached me I smelt that peculiar stuffy 
odour of London smoke. A shepherd told me that he and his 
friends of the hills called that mist " London dirt," and he said 
that when it passed over the snow in winter-time it left a residuum 
of black upon it. 

It was further established that owing to the deposit of sul- 
phurous acids left behind by the tarry particles of soot and smoke 
every building and work of art was being fretted away or ruined. 

266 



THE SMOKE PLAGUE 

The recent appeal of the Dean of Westminster for the vast sum 
of £250,000 to repair and protect the fabric of the venerable Abbey 
is a potent reminder of the disastrous results of our wasteful 
system of crudely burning sulphur-laden coal. 

Having collected a mass of uncontrovertible material, the 
Society set to work to force local authorities to prosecute flagrant 
offenders. We appointed inspectors whose duty it was to carefully 
observe factory shafts, in order to ascertain whether any smoke 
was emitted from them, and, if so, what colour and density the 
smoke assumed and for what periods it continued. Where the 
reports showed that an unnecessary amount of harmful smoke was 
being discharged, a complaint in regard to the offending firm was 
made to the Borough Council concerned. A few of the Councils 
— such as those of Westminster, the City, Kensington and Fulham — 
always received the Society's reports with sympathy. Others had 
to be goaded into even a faint semblance of activity. The Society 
found a stanch ally in the London County Council, which, fortu- 
nately, is enabled to act in cases where the Borough Council is 
guilty of a dereliction of duty. 

For a long time our effort proved to be an uphill task, but 
gradually it came to be recognized that the Society had behind 
it the backing of a powerful public opinion, and, with a few 
exceptions, the Borough Councils could be relied upon at any rate to 
protest to the smoke-raisers against a continuance of their nuisances. 

Our reports of nuisances averaged from 1,200 to 1,500 per 
annum until the outbreak of the late war led to the suspension of 
smoke prosecutions. In the meantime, the Society could claim 
with pride that a majority of the firms that originally and consist- 
ently offended had ceased to do so. An inquiry was addressed 
by the Society to a number of these firms in order to ascertain 
whether the means adopted were effective and economical in 
working. Over 70 varieties of trades, from engineering to candle- 
making, came within the scope of the inquiry, and the replies were 
remarkable. Out of 168 manufacturers who replied, only two 
reported that they did not consider that they had succeeded in their 
efforts to prevent smoke. Owing to the heavy rise in the price 
of coal and labour, several of the firms stated that their working 
and fuel bills had increased, but no less than 70 per cent, of the 
firms volunteering information definitely claimed that the adoption 

267 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

of modern methods of steam-raising or power production had re- 
sulted in considerable economy, coupled with greater efficiency. 
Some of the firms went so far as to express the view that even if 
smoke abatement involved increased expense to them, it ought to 
be enforced in the interests of the general community. 

No complaint was made that the suppression of smoke had 
involved any hardship on trade, and the voluntary testimony of 
many of the largest firms around the Metropolis conclusively proves 
that smoke abatement can be fairly insisted upon as a real 
advantage to the manufacturer. 

But it must not be thought that smoke from factory shafts 
is the only serious cause of atmospheric pollution. The chimneys 
of private dwelling-houses are also grave offenders, and the smoke 
they emit is of a peculiarly harmful character, on account of its 
clinging and tarry nature. Within the Metropolitan Police District 
there are upwards of 600,000 private houses contributing to the 
canopy of smoke. If kitcheners could be abolished, the output 
of grime would be greatly diminished, for the kitchener is a bad 
offender. The efforts of the Coal Smoke Abatement Society in 
regard to household chimneys have been necessarily limited by the 
fact that the law — such as it is — against smoke nuisances does not 
apply to them ; it can only be enforced against railway engines 
and tugs, and furnaces in factories, hotels and trading concerns 
generally. Private houses are wholly exempt from control. The 
Society has therefore encouraged manufacturers to improve the 
standard of grates and kitcheners, and, under the auspices and with 
the powerful co-operation of H.M. Office of Works, it has conducted 
several series of exhaustive tests of grates and fuels. These tests 
have aroused world-wide interest and have led to the manufacture 
i of better types of grates and other heating appliances. 

This source of smoke pollution is, moreover, being materially 
lessened by the extraordinary expansion in the use of gas fires and 
cooking stoves. The use of electric apparatus, too, is steadily 
growing, and efforts are being made to treat coal in such a way 
as to withdraw from it the bulk of its tarry constituents, which 
contain valuable oil, motor-spirit, gas, and other by-products, 
leaving a satisfactory and smokeless domestic fuel of the "coalite" 
type. These modern developments are factors of enormous import 
in the great task of cleansing the air. 

268 




BEST WESTMORELAND SLATE 

CHELSEA HOSPITAL. 




NEW AND OLD STONEWORK FROM THE TOWER OF LONDON. 

(The ravages of London moke.) 

To face p. 268. 



THE SMOKE PLAGUE 

It will thus be seen that much has been already accomplished 
as a result of the movement that led to the formation of the Coal 
Smoke Abatement Society, which has certainly deserved well of 
London, and has more than justified the existence of the organization. 
But it must not be imagined that the battle has yet been won. There 
are yearly consumed in London no fewer than 17,000,000 tons of coal, 
containing, it is estimated, an average of nearly 2 per cent., or 
340,000 tons, of sulphur. It is almost certain that something like 
200,000 tons of this sulphur must each year be poured out in gaseous 
form, or in the shape of soot, and when it is remembered that it is 
from sulphur compounds that the greatest injury results from the 
smoke nuisance, the appalling gravity of this source of pollution 
becomes apparent. The researches of the Atmospheric Pollution 
Committee have shown that the soot-fall in London may reach 
76,000 tons per annum. Is it any wonder, then, that smoke 
fogs still come and that winter sunshine is still deficient, even 
although in both respects most recent years have shown marked 
improvement ? 

Now that the pinch of the financial strain is being felt through- 
out every grade of society, perhaps some attention will be given 
to the wanton waste involved by the unnecessary and unwanted 
smoke plague. The thermal efficiency of the household grate, on 
the most sanguine computation, rarely reaches 20 per cent. In 
most cases it is far less. The rest of the heat is literally wasted by 
our barbarous methods of combustion. According to the data 
authoritatively submitted to the Royal Commission on Coal Supplies, 
we must lose at least 4,000,000 tons of coal each year by our 
foolish methods of generating power and heat. This, at the present 
price of coal, represents a dead annual loss of £12,000,000 — a huge 
sum to waste upon an unwanted nuisance, and one that, if avail- 
able for public use, would now relieve the ratepayers of all anxiety 
in these days of crushing local expenditure. To get rid of smoke, 
too, would save untold expenditure in the cleansing, washing and 
renewing of fabrics, works of art, and, indeed, property of every 
description. It would enable flowers that will not now bloom in 
sullied air to thrive in our parks and gardens. 

There is, then, still much to do. During the long years of 
war much of the good, wrought with so much effort, was undone. 
Factories were permitted to use any fuel they cared. They might 

260 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

smoke incessantly with impunity, and many have not yet renewed 
their former efforts to abate smoke. It is time that the law was 
again put into operation. It is time, too, that the law was 
strengthened where it has proved to be inadequate. Many of us 
are anxiously awaiting the long over-due Government measure on 
the subject. London suffers not only from the smoke generated 
in her midst, but also from the motley crowd of factory shafts 
outside her borders. These pour out smoke which blows over the 
Metropolis, and in most cases there is no redress. This, too, must 
be remedied. 

It would be futile to look forward to a time when Londoners 
may feel justified in applying to the Metropolis the proud boast of 
Augustus in regard to the Imperial City : " He found Rome of 
brick and left it of marble." But there is no reason why the 
dust and grime and gloom of London smoke should not give place 
to sunshine and to a pure air. Those who can give to posterity 
those priceless gifts will richly deserve, as they will surely receive, 
the gratitude of future generations. 



270 



THE SPIRIT OF LONDON 

THE MARQUESS OF CREWE, K.G., P.C., F.S.A. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE SPIRIT OF LONDON 

The foregoing sections of this book on London of the Future repre- 
sent a civic survey, by competent observers, of the Greater London 
which is the home of from seven to eight million souls. They 
describe what actually exists within that vast and teeming area ; 
what might be ; and what cannot be from the loss of opportunities 
that can never recur. The various writers describe the streets in 
which these millions live and move, the port and the railways by 
which they are fed and provided, the parks and squares through 
which they breathe and the smoke that chokes them. These things 
represent the facts of the present and the hopes of the future ; but 
they all hinge on the London of the past, and cities that have a 
past must cling to it as closely as they can, without pedantic 
sacrifice of the well-being of citizens of to-day and of years to come. 
Just as Edinburgh or Florence possesses a soul denied to Chicago 
or Johannesburg, with all their human interest and enterprise, so 
London has its own soul to keep among all projects of material 
improvement and industrial expansion. And this may well be, 
even though necessary and desirable changes must obliterate a 
great deal of the past. We are used to regard the Great Fire of 
1666 as an unmixed blessing to London, as having swept away the 
miserable rookeries where the Plague flourished ; but we may be sure 
that among the thirteen thousand houses that it destroyed there must 
have been hundreds of beautiful half-timbered structures, like the 
few that still variegate the oldest streets. It seems strange to read 
that Aldersgate Street " resembleth an Italian street more than 
any other in London " ; but there were fine old houses there up 
to 1878. I will say a word about improvements directly, but first 
it is worth while to consider what can be done to maintain the 

273 s 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

London spirit in the simple and obvious way that will appeal to 
everybody. Landor wrote that " The noble mansion is most 
distinguished by the beautiful images it retains of beings passed 
away ; and so is the noble mind " ; and though we cannot exhibit 
beautiful portraits of all the great figures of the past, even in our 
public galleries, something can be done to keep green the memories 
of those who have lived and worked, have found enjoyment and 
faced trouble, in the London of past days. Here and there it has 
been possible to acquire the house in which some great man has 
lived, to maintain it as far as possible in its original state, and to 
collect in it personal memorials. This was done, some years ago, 
with Thomas Carlyle's dwelling, 24 Cheyne Row, where it is hoped 
that changes of fashion in philosophers and historians will not prevent 
the visits of as many pilgrims, British and American, as will make 
it possible to maintain the house ; and, more recently, Mr. Cecil 
Harmsworth, with rare public spirit, has secured No. 17 Gough 
Square, off Fleet Street, where Johnson wrote The Vanity of Human 
Wishes and presided over the preparation of the Dictionary. In 
Kensington, in Holland Park Road, is the temple of Classical and 
Eastern art which was once Lord Leighton's home, and is filled 
with relics of his work, given to the country by the liberality of his 
sisters ; and far away to the east, in sharp contrast, is the house 
of John Wesley, in the City Road, next to his chapel and to the 
graveyard in which he lies, and made sacred to many by the 
presence of some of his books and other personal relics. There 
may not have been many opportunities of keeping untouched the 
residences of great men, and if there have been, few at any rate have 
been taken. Nobody knows where Shakespeare lived in London, 
and of Milton's different homes none is left, the last, I believe, 
having been engulfed in Queen Anne's Mansions. Dryden's house 
in Greek Street, Soho, is gone, though a tablet marks the site ; and 
even if it becomes possible to obtain the house at Hampstead where 
Keats lived as a guest and listened to the nightingale, it was con- 
sidered some years ago that his British and American admirers 
would do well to concentrate on acquiring the house at Rome in 
which he died, and which is now devoted to the Keats-Shelley Museum. 
I am not sure that the abodes of statesmen and other public figures 
have been so much more piously preserved than those of men of 
letters as might have seemed probable. Perhaps, in the changed 

274 



THE SPIRIT OF LONDON 

circumstances of to-day, the beautiful villa at Chiswick which 
witnessed the deaths of Charles Fox and Canning will once more 
be inhabited by the family of its owner. Arlington Street, the 
great Ministerial street of the early eighteenth century, has not 
entirely retained its political traditions, though the remaining great 
houses on the west side of the street, with the continuing line along 
the Green Park as far as Lancaster House, combined with what 
is left in private hands in St. James's Square, Berkeley Square 
and Mayfair, make up an irregular Faubourg Saint-Germain of 
the West End. And the survival of Nos. 10 and 11 Downing Street, 
of the Admiralty House, and of the Speaker's residence in Palace 
Yard must not be forgotten. But I know of no statesman's house 
which is specially maintained by private care to carry on a 
particular political or legal tradition for the public benefit. 

Short of the dedication of shrines like these, it is sought to 
perpetuate personal memories by placing tablets or plaques of 
association on the actual houses in which famous men or women 
have lived, and sometimes on houses occupying the same site. 
For many years the Society of Arts undertook the task, on a rather 
vague system of selection, and placed some thirty-five tablets on 
houses and buildings, mostly in Inner London. In 1901 the Society 
of Arts handed over the duty to the London County Council, and 
the first ceremony was undertaken by Lord Rosebery, at the 
house on Campden Hill which was the last home of Lord Macaulay. 
Since then the Council has thus distinguished forty-five more 
houses in all, the homes of statesmen, writers, men of science, 
painters, musicians and actors. Mr. E. V. Lucas, in the last of 
his delightful London books, London Revisited, has talked so fully 
and so pleasantly of these memorials that nothing is left to be 
said of them ; but those who wish to follow the expression of the 
London spirit through the course of years may concentrate a 
moment's attention on three or four of those who have been 
Londoners above everything, and to whom London owes most. 

As regards its material aspect, Sir Christopher Wren, of course, 
stands alone. If the river were still the main London highway, 
Sir Christopher's work would not be the most prominent feature, 
for between Lambeth Palace and the Tower the eye would dwell 
on the Houses of Parliament, and at all events with unalloyed 
admiration on the Victoria Tower ; it would pass admiringly by 

275 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

Norman Shaw's fine fortress at Scotland Yard ; and it would rest 
with complete satisfaction on the river front of Somerset House. 
But everywhere else, eastward, Wren is supreme, and, apart from 
his mighty dome, people hardly realize how completely the view 
of London from any elevation depends upon his towers and spires 
and on a few of those built by his pupils. And, of course, the most 
famous of all London's lost opportunities is displayed in the great 
plan for its reconstruction after the Fire, from the cost of which 
even the cheerful age of the Restoration was bound to shrink. 

Sir Christopher was not a Londoner born, for he came from 
Wiltshire, but he was a Westminster boy, and was distinguished 
in many intellectual directions as a man of science before he found 
fame as an architect. It is here, of course, that he is immortal, 
above all for his work in London ; but he was something of an 
Admirable Crichton in many ways, and did not disdain to represent 
three constituencies in Parliament. His memory as a great Londoner 
stands alone in his own sphere ; but I pass on to name three great 
writers, Johnson, Lamb and Dickens, who seem to me, in their 
very different ways, to have expressed the spirit and genius of 
London more completely than any others. It is a flattering 
reflection for the great city that all three, though absolutely unlike, 
were, as was Sir Christopher Wren, people of the highest probity 
and of delightful personality. All three enjoyed the devotion of 
countless friends, and intimacy with any of them was a high 
privilege. All three, at some time of their lives, knew the deepest 
depths of trouble and must have been tempted to despair. All 
three faced fate with the manliest courage, and often with humour 
whose freshness the passage of years has not abated. Nobody 
who reads the story of their lives, of which it would be impertinent 
to repeat even the outlines here, can ignore Dr. Johnson's continual 
good-humoured, dawdling and disorderly acceptance of poverty, 
discomfort and bad health, accompanied by " no passion for 
clean linen " ; or Charles Lamb's noble serenity and devotion after 
his appalling family tragedy of 1796 ; or the unforgettable tale 
of Dickens's boyhood and the blacking warehouse near Hungerford 
Market. With Johnson we live in close contact with many of the 
brightest figures of the second half of the eighteenth century. 
Reflected in Boswell's undimmed mirror, and lit up by his unequalled 
zest for every form of enjoyable life, Gibbon, Garrick, Sir Joshua 

276 



THE SPIRIT OF LONDON 

Reynolds, Goldsmith, Burke and Thurlow step into the easiest 
intimacy with our humble selves ; and the smaller figures of Bennet 
Langton, the polite and peaceful gentleman, and of Topham 
Beauclerk, the ironical dandy, become equally familiar in our 
circle of acquaintance. 

Charles Lamb was a Londoner of Londoners, born in the 
Temple and a Christ's Hospital boy. In middle life he wrote of 
" London, whose dirtiest, drab-frequented alley, and her lowest- 
bowing tradesman, I would not exchange for Skiddaw, Helvellyn 
and the rest." But his typical London figures are not historical 
like Johnson's circle, and their charm often depends on the 
kindly humour and art of their delineator. Some of them, indeed, 
are real people and sufficiently well known. " Some of the Old 
Actors " were famous, and some of the " Old Benchers of the 
Inner Temple," though now only remembered in these pages, did 
their work and made their fortunes in the sight of all men. But 
most of the portraits inhabit the borderland between fiction and 
fact, in the vanished rooms of the South Sea House and the 
India House, in quiet parlours and second-hand bookshops, some 
under thinly assumed names, others in real names that have long 
passed from recollection. 

Thus Johnson's London is crowded with real people with 
real names ; Lamb's London is on the debatable ground between 
fiction and fact ; while the inhabitants of Dickens':* London are the 
offspring of pure imagination, but remain as authentically real as 
the cleanest-cut figures in history. None of the company at The 
Club or at Mrs. Thrale's exist more vividly than do Sam Weller, 
Micawber and Mrs. Gamp. Bob Sawyer's menage at Lant Street 
in the Borough, the Marchioness's r care of Dick Swiveller, the 
flight of Bill Sikes, Mr. Tulkinghorn's chambers, the waterside 
scenes in Our Mutual Friend, the atmosphere of Doctors' Commons, 
and the dwellers in half a dozen boarding houses are as genuine 
relics of London eighty years ago as any which can be established 
in the dullest book of reference. 

Here one might well stop with the tale of the giants ; but 
the love of London, fortified by the deeper knowledge of its 
history acquired through affectionate research, has persisted and 
still persists among men of lower stature than those. Sir Walter 
Besant has a place of his own as a not inconsiderable writer of 

277 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 

fiction ; but his name will live longest as a devotee of London. 
His boyhood at Stockwell College, when his holidays were given 
up to excursions in the City, and his days at King's College led up 
to the two famous London stories, All Sorts and Conditions of Men 
and Children of Gibeon. Everybody knows, or ought to know, 
that the " Palace of Delight " of the first of these stories became 
the People's Palace in Mile End Road, the outcome of a fund 
of £75,000, added to the Drapers' Company's gift of £20,000 for 
the Technical School, which has blossomed into the East London 
College. Politicians know that they can count on one hand 
speeches that have averted a hostile division ; and novels that 
have swept away abuses or induced reforms are equally rare. 
Sir Walter Besant's book can join the select company of Oliver 
Twist and Bleak House, of Uncle Tom's Cabin and of It is Never 
Too Late to Mend. 

Sir Walter Besant died in 1901, and contemporary with many 
of his later years was a man far less known to the public at large, 
but his equal as a lover of London, Sir Lawrence Gomme. He was 
Clerk to the London County Council, and to his credit must be 
placed the admirable records of Old London which from the first 
linked up the new municipal creation with the ancient traditions 
of the county area. The publications of the Council attest this, 
and I believe that to Sir Lawrence, among many other services, 
are due a revival of the old name of Aldwych, and the happy 
adaptation of the general term Kingsway as the title of a great 
arterial street. 

Lastly, I cannot refrain from mentioning once more the 
name of Mr. E. V. Lucas, the sympathetic biographer of Charles 
Lamb, who in his reminders of London traditions and his resusci- 
tation of noble London ghosts combines most of the merits 
belonging to the writers that I have already cited. 

My purpose in this article has been to plead for understanding 
of the London of the past as a help to knowledge of what is needed 
for the London of the future. When the rehousing of London is 
discussed, it is amusing to reflect on the figure of Ben Jonson, 
with a bricklayer's trowel in one hand and a book in the other — 
a form of " ca' canny " which the most austere employer ought to 
condone. When we ponder over the problem of London smoke, 
it is interesting to be reminded that, in Charles IPs reign, John 

278 



THE SPIRIT OF LONDON 

Evelyn was responsible for a Bill dealing with smoky chimneys, 
adding that the " nuisance could only be reformed by moving 
several trades which are the cause of it," though Garden Cities were 
undreamt of; and that a hundred years later, when Franklin 
came as Agent to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, he spoke 
of London as " one great smoaky house," and complained that 
the air was full of floating sea-coal soot, so that pure breathing 
could only be got by riding some miles into the country. 

It is the conclusion of the whole matter that in designing 
great London improvements we ought to revere, and so far as 
possible to conserve, what is left of the London of the past. To 
ensure this has been the aim of The London Society since its founda- 
tion, and other agencies, such as the London Topographical 
Society, with its valuable volumes of illustrated records and 
carefully chosen reproductions, and the London Survey Committee, 
with their series of important monographs, have contributed 
excellently to the same object. 

It is supremely important also to remember that where funds 
are limited — and for a long time they will be limited — it is wise to 
embark on no piecemeal changes which can hamper, or even 
forbid, improvements on a great scale which our wise forefathers 
would have welcomed, such as the building of a free and splendid 
bridge at Charing Cross. In the reorganization of London we 
cannot stand still, and we ought not to stand still ; but we 
can advance with reverence and see to it that the immemorial 
spirit of London does not suffer amid the rush and stress of 
our modern life. 



279 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Alien problem, the, 29, 166, 173 

Allotments, 243 

Amenities Services, 222-4 

Areas, allocation of, 30, 179, 180 

Arterial Roads {see also under Roads), 17, 18, 

23, 49, 66, 184, 201 
Asquith, deputations to Mr., 17, 18 
Atmospheric Pollution Committee, 269 
Authority, need of controlling, 30, 38, 39, 

41, 51, 187, 188 
Aviation (generally), 25, 93-7, 204 

Bazalgette, J. W., 104, 105 
Board of Trade, 18, 22, 74, 79, 84 
Bridges, 25-7, 54, 101-14, 134-7, 225 
British Empire Exhibition, 253 
Brunswick Dock, 155 
Building Acts, 226 
Burton, Decimus, 111, 149 

Cafes, open-air, 238 

Canals, 32, 88, 89, 236, 246 

Cannon Street Station, 38, 41, 42, 77, 113, 

132, 135, 148 
Census Returns, 70 
Central Clearing House, 24, 84, 182 
Central London improvements, 28. 89, 

141-51, 179, 225, 226 
Central Terminal Stations, 24, 73, 80, 145, 

148, 183 
Channel Tunnel, 26, 41, 117-24 
Charing Cross Bridge, 17, 19-21, 25, 26, 37, 

38, 40, 42, 77, 78, 109, 114, 121-3, 

131-4, 145, 148, 149, 279 
Charing Cross Station, 26, 38, 40, 120, 121, 

131-6, 148 
China Town, 167 
Churchyards, disused, 256 
City Corporation, 214, 215, 230, 252 
Civic Centres and Parks, 237 
Clarke, W. Tierney, 104 



Coal Smoke Abatement Society, 33, 265-9 
Coal Supplies, Royal Commission on, 269 
Commons (and Footpaths) Preservation 

Society, 255 
Cottage system, the, 185, 204, 205 
County Hall, the new, 27, 108, 129, 132 
Covent Garden, 30, 88, 182, 183 
Crowds, tendency towards and effect of, 177, 

178 
Curzon, Lord, 17, 24 

Daily fare, the importance of, 196, 197 

Decentralization, 178, 179, 183 

Departmental Committee on Smoke, 33, 
264 

Development Plan of London, the (pre- 
pared by The London Society), 19-22, 
62, 114, 134, 187, 209, 236 

Dock road improvements, 61, 147, 148 

Docks, the, 28, 29, 84, 87, 147, 155-60 

Dormitory suburbs, 142, 182, 187 

East End, the, 28-30, 43, 163-73 

Education, 226-29 

Embankment, Surrey side, 27, 41, 130-2, 

136 
Embankments, 105, 106, 108, 168 
Empire Terminus, 26, 121 
Euston Station, 146 

Fairlop Boat, the, 165 
Fenchurch Street Station, 77, 147 
Fire Brigade, the London, 222 
Flat system, the, 169, 185, 204, 205 
Fumifugium, 263 

Golder's Green Interchange Station, 184 
Government of London, the, 31, 204, 213-32 
Great War, the, 18, 22, 23, 114, 119, 216, 

219, 251 
Greater London, 30, 31, 202, 206, 213, 232 



283 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 



Green belt round London, the, 30, 32, 181, 

187, 189, 200, 236, 243, 244 
Growth of London, 200 
Gwynne, John, map of improvements, 1766, 

16 

Health, Ministry of, 216, 217 

Health Services, 215-20 

Historic houses, 222, 274, 275 

Home, the essentials of the, 169, 195, 196, 

207-9 
Housing, 31, 61, 63, 159, 169, 195-209 
Howard, Ebenezer, 30, 189 
Howland Dock, 155 

Imperial importance of London, 29, 32, 43, 

93, 117, 118, 143, 146, 160, 251-8 
Improvements, assessment of, 190, 191 
Interchange stations, 184 

Journal of The London Society, 18 

King's Cross, 78, 79, 87, 146 
Kyrle Society, the, 255 

Lagoon Docks, 131 

Lamps and signs, regulation of, 226 

Land, ownership of, 191, 201, 202 

Land values, 74, 188-192 

Leasehold system, the, 203 

Literary London, 275-8 

Liverpool road schemes, 52 

Local Government Board, the, 18, 33, 264 

Location of buildings, 38, 39, 43, 56, 180, 

197, 207, 209 
London, a suggested model of, 21 
London and Home Counties Authority, 51 
London Boroughs, 50, 214-16 
London Bridge, 21, 25, 27, 40, 41, 44, 54, 

101-3, 109, 112, 113, 134 
London County Council, the, 19, 27, 31, 50, 

61, 104, 105, 107-10, 132, 199, 206, 

213-32, 239, 252, 265, 267, 275 
London Museum, the, 19, 21 
London Society, The, 15-24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 

34, 40, 44, 51, 71, 78, 114, 130, 132, 

136, 209, 214, 239, 279 
London street, the, 202 
London Survey Committee, 279 
London, the development of, 30, 177-92, 

204, 209 
London Topographical Society, 279 
London University, 146 
Lucas, E. V., 275, 278 



Mall improvement, the, 17 

Mansart, J. H., 102 

Markets, 88, 168, 182 

Marylebone Station, 78, 86, 88 

Mass production, 179 

Mentally Defective, Care of the, 225 

Meteorological Council, the, 266 

Metropolitan Board of Works, the, 27, 104, 

105, 107, 110 
Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, 33, 

254, 255 
Metropolitan Water Board, the, 213, 215 
Michael Angelo Taylor's Act, 225 
Moving platforms, 83 

Nineteenth Century, the, 17 

Open Spaces, 32, 33, 65, 168, 172, 181, 186, 

187, 207, 222, 223, 235^7, 254-58 
Open Spaces, bodies responsible for, 255 
Open Spaces, classification and distribution 

of, 236 
Opportunities, 21, 37-45 
Overcrowding, 185, 186, 198, 199 
Oyer and Terminer, Commission of, 262 

Paris, 49, 73, 117-19, 121, 123 

Parks, see under Open Spaces 

Parkways, 238, 239, 254 

Parliamentary Committee on Smoke, 1819, 
263, 264 

Patent theatres, 221 

Peace Memorial, 124 

Plan, The London Society's (see under De- 
velopment) 

Plan, urgent need of a, 30, 38, 50, 129, 172, 
181, 197 

Playgrounds, 65, 186, 207 

Pneumatic tubes, 24, 89, 90 

Population, density of, 197, 198, 205 

Population, growth of, 53, 178, 196, 201, 255 

Population, movement of, 53, 69, 74, 178, 
179, 198 

Population, statistics of, 50, 53, 198, 199 

Port of London Authority, the, 28, 29, 88, 
89, 155-60, 213 

Protective Services, 220-2 

Public gardeners, 242 

Public-houses, 190, 238 

Queues, 178 

Railways, 23, 24, 30, 38, 40, 42, 69-90, 135, 
143-8, 183, 184, 200, 201 
Abolition of double approaches, 72 



2S4 



INDEX 



Railways, continued — 

Central Termini, Elimination of, 73, 148 

Clearing House, 24, 84, 182 

Coal traffic, 70, 85 

Control, 71 

Departmental Committee Report, 71 

Effect on amenities, 24, 38 

Electrical operation, 24, 30, 75, 76, 79, 
80, 145 

Express Lines, 82 

Goods traffic, 83-8, 135, 147, 182 

Moving platforms, 83 

North and South connections, 87, 88 

Parcels traffic, 24, 89, 90 

Passengers, numbers carried by, 69, 70, 74 

Personal luggage, 24, 80 

Plan, need of a general, 23, 70 

Rates Act, 71 

Reconstruction, 69 

Suburban traffic, 79-83, 143-5, 183 

Termini reductions, 76 

Termini (underground), 24, 30, 40, 135, 
145, 146, 183 

Trunk Lines, 76-9 

Tube Lines, 69, 70, 73, 79-82, 135, 143, 
144, 145, 148, 200, 201 

Uses of existing lines, 24 
Rates, equalization, 204-6 
Recoupment, 73, 74 
Redistribution, 189 
Regent's Canal, 88, 89 
Regulative Services, 226 
Rennie, John, 107, 109-13 
Riverside Reservations, 66, 187, 243, 244, 246 
Road transport revival, 37, 49, 50, 53, 184 
Roads, 17, 18, 22, 49-66, 184, 201 
Roads (Arterial) — 

Barking, 64 

Basingstoke, 57, 64 

Bath, 57, 58, 64 

Brentford Bye-pass, 58, 64 

Brighton, 57, 58 

Bromley Bye-pass, 62 

Cambridge, 57, 61, 64 

Chertsey, 60 

Chiswick High Road, 58, 60 

Colchester, 57, 59, 60, 64 

Croydon Bye-pass, 58, 64 

Dover, 61, 63 

Eastern Avenue, 59, 60, 64 

Eltham Bye-pass, 62, 63 

Enfield, 61 

Great North, 57 

Kidbrooke Park Extension, 63 

Kingston Bye-pass, 62 



Roads (Arterial), continued — 

Maidstone, 61, 63 

North Circular, 60, 63 

Norwich, 57 

Oxford, 57, 59, 63 

Portsmouth, 57, 62 

Shooters Hill Bye-pass, 63 

Sidcup Bye-pass, 62 

South Circular, 60, 63 

Sutton Bye-pass, 62 

Tilbury, 64 

Tonbridge, 61, 62 

Western Avenue, 59, 60, 63, 149 
Roads, need of central authority, 23, 51 
Roads, need of general plan, 23, 50 
Roof gardens, 32, 241, 242 

St. Paul's Bridge, 27, 42, 132, 136 

Satellite towns, 182. 184, 185, 187, 200 

Scientific planting, 237 

Seacoles Lane, 262 

Select Committee on Smoke, 18, 43, 263 

Select Committee on Transport, 51, 72, 84 

Skylines, importance of, 43 

Slums, 65, 150 

Smaller open spaces, the importance of, 240, 

241, 254-8 
Smoke Nuisance, the, 33, 242, 261-70, 279 
Society of Arts, 275 

South-Eastern Railway Company, the, 19 
South Side Committee of The London 

Society, 17, 40, 41, 130, 136 
Spirit of London, the, 273-9 
Squares, 239, 257 
Strand Bridge Company, 109 
Sunday Times, the, 113 
Surrey side of the river, 17, 21, 26-8, 

40-2, 44, 122, 123, 127-38 

Temple Bar, 137 

Temple Bridge, 27, 132, 136, 137 

Thames, River, 29, 32, 38, 88, 89, 95, 114, 

122, 127, 128, 130, 163-5, 168, 172, 179, 

181, 236, 245, 261 
Thames-side housing, 61, 159 
Tilbury Docks, 147, 159, 179 
Tower Bridge, 103, 112 
Town planning, effect on land values, 30, 40, 

189 
Town planning Acts, 216-19, 226 
Town planning, chance for co-operation, 64, 

65 
Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade, 18, 22, 

79 
Traffic Commission, 23, 50, 70, 83 



285 



LONDON OF THE FUTURE 



Traffic congestion, 37, 52, 54, 55, 57, 59, 182 

Traffic distribution, 54 

Traffic, problem of Surrey-side, 129, 130,132 

Tramways, 185, 224 

Transit facilities, 196, 197, 203, 204 

Transport Bill, 51 

Transport by air, 25, 93-7, 204 

Transport Ministry, 18, 22-4, 51, 62-4, 72, 90 

Tree-planting, value of, 56 

Unemployment (Relief Works) Act, 63 

Vauxhall Bridge, 25, 107, 108 



Victoria and Albert Docks, 61, 147, 157-9 
Victoria Embankment, 42, 104, 118, 131, 
132, 137, 168 

War Memorial, National, 21, 43, 77, 114 
Waterloo Bridge, 25, 26, 54, 101, 109-11, 

114, 132, 136 
Weavers' Fraternity, 164-6, 170 
Westminster Bridge, 25-7, 54, 101, 108 
Working classes, housing of, 169, 172, 216 
Wren, Sir Christopher, 142, 275 

Zone Road, 62 



286 



Printed in Great Britain by 

I'NWIN BR0THEB8, LIMlTKl. 
WOBINQ AND LONDOM 



